Originally from: Enforcement of Money Judgments - Looseleaf
Enforcement of Money Judgments - Electronic
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Germany
I. PRESENT ATTITUDE TOWARD ENFORCEMENT OF
FOREIGN MONEY JUDGMENTS
A. Describe the receptiveness of your government (including
courts) toward enforcement of foreign money judgments.
German courts will enforce a foreign money judgment provided the
requirements of the German Code of Civil Procedure (“ZPO”) §§ 722,
723 and 328 or of the EC Regulation 44/2001 on Jurisdiction and the
Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial
Matters (“EC-Regulation 2001”) are met, or if a treaty is applicable—the
applicable treaty requirements are met. If the requirements of EC
Regulation 805/2004 creating a European Enforcement Order for
uncontested claims (“EC-Regulation 2004”) are met no enforcement
order of the foreign judgment is required in Germany anymore.1 Other
than the policies embodied there, the German government maintains no
official position regarding the enforcement of foreign money judgments.
In general, German civil procedure does not provide any special
procedures for enforcing foreign money judgments. Rather, the judgment
creditor is directed to enforce the judgment by filing a civil action and
obtaining a German judgment of enforcement or, to the extent permitted
by law, by initiating a summary proceeding (Beschlussverfahren). An
action for a judgment of enforcement is not given any special priority.
Rather the court hears such cases along with all others generally in the
order in which they were filed. For example, in a routine civil action
before the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court, the first hearing occurs
usually about four to six months after the petition is filed. Generally, the
German rules of civil procedure do not provide for enforcement of a
foreign money judgment before German enforcement proceedings are
concluded even if the judgment creditor is prepared to post security;
there are, however, exceptions under certain treaties. Of course, the
debtor’s property can be attached using pre-judgment remedies under the
general rules of German civil procedure regardless of whether the
creditor’s claim has been reduced to a judgment.
