Originally from: Enforcement of Money Judgments - Looseleaf
Enforcement of Money Judgments - Electronic
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Iceland
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 at 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.
Accordingly, the rules on enforcement of foreign money judgments
in Iceland are similar to those in force within the EU and the EFTA
countries. This means that any judgment from a country that is a party
Othar Orn Petersen and Heidar Asberg Atlason
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