34.01 Common law rules on the effect of foreign judgments

We saw in Chapter 33, and will see in Chapters 35 and 36, the schemes made by various statutes for giving effect in England to the judgments of certain courts in certain foreign countries. What these have in common is that the foreign judgment may be registered in England for enforcement in England as though it were a judgment of the High Court; it is more or less true to say that the foreign judgment itself can be enforced in England. It is little wonder that such a thing can only be justified and put in place by statute, and that these statutes generally serve as the vehicle to give effect in England to the provision of an international agreement, whether informal,1 or bilateral,2 or multilateral.3