What Types of Foreign Judgments Can Be Enforced in China?

Most civil and commercial foreign judgments can be enforced in China, except for those relating to intellectual property, unfair competition and anti-monopoly disputes.

In general, legal instruments such as judgments, rulings, decisions and orders made by foreign courts on substantive disputes in civil and commercial cases and on civil damages in criminal cases may be recognized and enforced by the Chinese courts.

Apart from that, it is noteworthy that:

A） According to our experience, generally, legal instruments issued by foreign courts for the payment of court fees and lawyer’s fees in civil and commercial cases may also be recognized and enforced by Chinese courts.

B) Interim measures (also known as ‘preservation measures/orders’ in China) or other procedural legal documents issued by foreign courts cannot be recognized and enforced by a Chinese court. This is also consistent with the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters.

C) The intellectual property, unfair competition and anti-monopoly cases may not be recognized and enforced in China. This is similar to the exclusion of such cases in the Hague Judgments Convention.

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