Originally from Enforcement of Money Judgments

I.  PRESENT ATTITUDE TOWARD ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN MONEY JUDGMENTS

A. Describe the receptiveness of your government (including courts) toward enforcement of foreign money judgments.

In the past, the Icelandic legislation used to be very restrictive and conservative with regard to the enforcement of foreign money judgments. With the entry into force of a new Act on Enforcement No. 90/1989 (“Enforcement Act”) this attitude was set aside. The main principle remains the same; foreign judgments are not directly enforceable in Iceland. However, under the Enforcement Act, foreign money judgments can now be directly enforced where Iceland has committed itself to international law to recognize those judgments.

Among reasons for this change in attitude were the commitments of Iceland through the European Free Trade Association (“EFTA”) and the establishment of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). On September 11, 1995, Iceland ratified the Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (“Lugano Convention of 1988”). This treaty is based on mutual trust for the judicial systems and civil procedure in the respective countries. By the ratification and adoption of the Lugano Convention into Icelandic laws by Act No. 68/1995 we had implemented the substantive rules of the European Community, now European Union (“EU”), regarding judicial cooperation in civil matters within the European region. Those rules were established with the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters of September 27, 1968. On October 30, 2007, Iceland signed a “revised” Lugano Convention, the Convention on Jurisdiction and Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters (“Lugano Convention”). The revised Convention was ratified and adopted into law January 20, 2011, replacing the Lugano Convention of 1988, and entered into force on May 1, 2011 with Act No. 7/2011.