The attitude toward enforcement of foreign money judgments may be described as liberal in the sense that if the judgment meets the requirements of reciprocity, it will in general be enforced as if it were a judgment of an Austrian court. The principle of reciprocity is that if the country of origin of the judgment will enforce an Austrian money judgment, then Austrian courts will do likewise.
 

Before the coming into force of the current law of enforcement (Exekutionsordnung) immediate enforcement of the foreign judgment was already provided if the foreign judgment met the requirements of Austrian law. The current law of enforcement requires that the foreign judgment is first declared enforceable (exequatur). All formal requirements for declaration of enforceability may be by a petition to the court for declaration of enforceability, and the party requesting enforcement under current law does not have to present individual proof of reciprocity since reciprocity has to be determined on the basis of the numerous existing treaties or on the basis of a published government order. Treaties and government orders relating to reciprocity are published in the administrative order for legal assistance (Rechtshilfeerlass) and, therefore, make such applications easy.
 

A request for enforcement can be connected with the petition for declaration of enforceability. The court has to rule on both simultaneously.

Judicial scrutiny of material and formal aspects of the foreign money judgment is limited to compliance with fundamental principles of a fair trial and certain aspects of public order.