Indonesia - Enforcement of Money Judgments

If the term “foreign judgment” refers to a foreign court decision, then Indonesian Law is very clear in that it does not allow an Indonesian court to assist in the enforcement of a foreign court’s judgment in Indonesia. However, if the foreign judgment is an arbitral award, Indonesia’s attitude will be a little different, as Indonesia now wants to present a picture of itself as a nation that is more “friendly” to arbitration”, which was not the case fifteen or more years ago, when Indonesia was viewed as a country which was “unfriendly” towards arbitration.

Indonesia’s friendlier attitude to arbitration was apparent from its introduction of Law No. 30/1999 regarding Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Settlement. Law No. 30/1999 was an effort by the government to provide a better mechanism for the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards although as we will see in the discussion below a losing party in an arbitration dispute still have many ways to delay the enforcement of the respective arbitration award (whether issued by a local or a foreign arbitration body) in the country.

The discussion in this questionnaire focuses on the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.

B. Briefly describe recent illustrative attempts, whether successful or unsuccessful, to enforce a foreign money judgment in your country, particularly with regard to enforcement of any judgments from United States courts.

Indonesia now, being an “arbitration friendly country”, has seen a number of successful efforts in the enforcement of arbitration awards in Indonesia despite the losing parties’ attempts to challenge the award enforcement. For the reason that court executorial decrees for the execution of an arbitration award in Indonesia are not published, we have no information as to the degree of the success nor as to how fast an award may be executed in the country.