Analysis Of The Institution For Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments In Domestic And Community Legal System, In The Context Of Association Of Moldova To The European Union

Judgments are instruments rendered in the exercise of state authority and shall take effect only in the State whose courts have rendered them. Outside the state they produce effects only admitted by the other state. Otherwise they are used only as evidence means. In the latter case the plaintiff should introduce a new procedure in the second state on the same object in order to enforce his/her claims. The court of other state would have choice whether it trusts the judgment passed by first instance or whether it initiates its own proceedings to obtain evidence. This would make movement of judgments between states very complicated. The institution for recognition of a foreign judgment simplifies the movement of judgments between states, in that a judgment shall not be regarded in a foreign state as evidence, but also as a judgment. The paper below is a study of the institution for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments within Moldova by parallel analysis of Community rules governing the institution concerned within the European Union. Thus, one of the main goals of this paper is to familiarize the local doctrinarians with European civil law rules on this legal instrument. This article contains a description of the procedure for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments (including submission of an application, court referral, examination of an application, reasons for refusal etc.) and foreign arbitral awards in the territory of the Republic of Moldova. In the context of European integration aspirations of Moldova, references are made in paragraph three to the Community rules on recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters set out in the Regulation no. 44/2001 of the European Council of 22 December 2000 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.