Enforcement of a Judgment of a Foreign Court in South Korea

Enforcement of a Judgment of a Foreign Court in South Korea

A judgment rendered by a foreign court or a judgment acknowledged to have the same force (hereinafter referred to as "judgment") shall be recognized and executed in South Korea if all of the following conditions are met:

1.    The judgment is final and conclusive;

2.    The international jurisdiction of the respective foreign court is recognized under the principle of international jurisdiction under the statutes or treaties of the Republic of Korea;

3.    The defeated defendant was served, via a lawful method, a written complaint or document corresponding thereto, and notified of the date of written order allowing him/her sufficient time to defend (excluding cases of service by public notice or similar), or he/she responded to the lawsuit without having been served such documents;

4.    The approval of the respective judgment does not undermine sound morals or other social orders of the Republic of Korea in light of the contents of such a judgment or associated judicial procedures;

5.    Mutual guarantee exists or there must be reciprocity between Korea law and the foreign jurisdiction with no major differences between the two on fundamental points of law.

International Jurisdiction (Condition 3)

There have been cases in which the Korean court did not acknowledge the judgment of a foreign court. For example in the case of Incheon District Court 2005Gahap 1441, the defendant was accused of selling defective products in Country A. However, the defendant didn't have a business office in Country A, and the Korean court ruled that the plaintiff had no reasonable legal grounds on which to sue the defendant.

Not undermining sound morals or other social order of the Republic of Korea (Condition 4)

A. Double lawsuit

Korean courts do not recognize or execute a judgment of a foreign court if the case in question has already been dealt with in a Korean court before the judgment of the foreign court and judgment of Korean court is final and irrevocable.

A similar clause exists in Article 5(3) of "Convention of 1 February 1971 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters”=>Click to See

B. Punitive compensation

Korean law does not recognize punitive compensation. There have been cases in which Korean courts have reduced the amount of punitive compensation that was ordered by courts in the U.S. on the basis that recognizing the whole amount of compensation undermines the orders of Korean laws.

Mutual Guarantee (Condition 5)

There is a mutual guarantee/reciprocity between Korea and the following jurisdictions:

 

The U.S.A: California, Texas, Washington

People’s Republic of China

Canada

There was a case in which a Korean court upheld that Australia doesn’t have a mutual guarantee clause.

Taejin Kim, partner attorney at K&P Law Firm

taejin.kim@kimnpark.com

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