A foreign judgment is enforced in Sri Lanka by registering it under the Reciprocal Recognition, Registration and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act No. 49 of 2024. Registration is available only where the Minister has listed the judgment's country of origin by Order under section 2.
Sri Lanka enforced foreign judgments under two Ordinances inherited from the colonial period until the 2024 Act, certified on 13 September 2024. Section 21 repealed both the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Ordinance (Chapter 93) and the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Ordinance (Chapter 94) with effect from the appointed date, leaving a single registration regime in their place.
The Act is short, at twenty-four sections across three Parts. Most of the work in practice happens in three of them.
First question: is the country listed?
The Act does not apply to foreign judgments generally. Under section 2(1), the Minister may by Order published in the Gazette declare that the Act extends to judgments of the courts of a particular foreign country. That power arises where Sri Lanka and that country have entered a treaty on reciprocal recognition, or where a written law in force immediately before the appointed date already provided for reciprocal recognition, and where the Minister is satisfied that extending the Act will assure substantial reciprocity of treatment for Sri Lankan judgments in that country.
Section 2(2) allows the Minister to seek the views of the Minister assigned Foreign Affairs and of the Attorney-General before making such an Order.
The practical consequence is blunt. If the country whose court gave your judgment is not named in a current Order, this Act does you no good, however strong the judgment. That is the first thing to check, and the Order is a moving target: it can be added to, and the list in force when you advise is the one that matters. Check the current Gazette Order rather than relying on a list published in an article, including this one.
Second question: does the judgment qualify?
Section 3(1) applies the Act only to a judgment that is final and conclusive as between the parties, and then requires at least one of seven connecting factors:
- the judgment-creditor or judgment-debtor was resident in the country of the original court when they became a party to the proceedings
- the judgment-debtor, being a natural person, had his principal place of business there at that time
- the judgment-creditor obtained the judgment on his claim or claim in reconvention
- the judgment-debtor maintained a branch, agency or other establishment there at that time, with or without separate legal personality
- the judgment-debtor agreed to submit, or submitted, to the jurisdiction of the original court
- the property relating to the judgment, movable or immovable, was situated in Sri Lanka or in the country of the original court at the time of the proceedings
- the applicant derived a right, interest, benefit, title, status or entitlement under the judgment, at its date or afterwards
Matrimonial judgments are dealt with separately under section 3(1)(b). A judgment for dissolution or annulment of a marriage, or for separation of the parties, is only within the Act where the marriage was registered under the Marriage Registration Ordinance (Chapter 112), and where a domicile or habitual residence condition is met. It does not matter whether the marriage was contracted, or the judgment entered, before or after the appointed date.
Registration, and what it gets you
An application is made under section 4 in the prescribed form, supported by affidavit and made within the period the section specifies.
Under section 5(1) the registering court registers the judgment if it is prima facie satisfied, as at the date of the application, that the judgment is one to which the Act applies, that the applicant derived a right or interest under it, and that the application was made in time.
Section 5(2) is the provision that gives registration its force. A registered judgment is deemed to have the same force and effect, and the same control over execution, as if it had been given by the registering court itself and entered on the date of registration. Enforcement then proceeds as it would for any local judgment.
Section 5(3) is a practical limit worth noting when calculating the claim. Where part of the relief awarded by the original court has already been satisfied by the date of the application, the registering court may enforce only the unsatisfied part.
Objecting, and the narrow grounds for it
Section 6 governs registration of matrimonial judgments and provides for notice to the respondent. Section 7 then allows a respondent served with that notice to appear and object, on three grounds only: that the applicant failed to satisfy the requirements of section 4, that there is fraud, or that there is a misrepresentation of facts relevant to the application and the supporting affidavit.
Those grounds are narrow and they are directed at the application rather than at the merits of the foreign proceedings. The Act does not invite the registering court to retry the case.
The finality point
Section 12(1) provides that no appeal lies against any order of the registering court on an application for recognition, registration and enforcement of a foreign judgment, other than a matrimonial judgment.
For commercial judgments, therefore, the registration decision is effectively final. That places real weight on getting the application right first time: the section 3 conditions, the section 4 form and affidavit, and the timing.
Matrimonial judgments are treated differently. Under section 12(2) a dissatisfied party may appeal to the relevant High Court established under Article 154P of the Constitution, but only with leave first obtained from that court.
How this sits beside arbitral awards
A foreign arbitral award is a different instrument enforced under a different statute, and the two should not be conflated. Awards are dealt with under the Arbitration Act No. 11 of 1995, which is covered separately in enforcing a foreign arbitral award.
The distinction matters at the drafting stage as much as the enforcement stage. A party contracting with a Sri Lankan counterparty and choosing a foreign court is choosing a route that depends on whether the Minister has listed that country. A party choosing arbitration is choosing a different and, for enforcement purposes, generally wider path. That choice is made in the dispute resolution clause, often years before anyone thinks about enforcement.
Other provisions worth knowing
- Section 11 allows the registering court, at any time after registration, to exercise the powers the section confers over the registered judgment.
- Section 17 deals with judgments not in English and the translation requirements that follow.
- Section 18 makes it an offence to willfully and dishonestly make a false statement of fact in connection with an application.
- Section 19 applies the ordinary rules of procedure to any matter not provided for in the Act.
- Section 22 preserves the position in respect of matters under the repealed Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Ordinance.
Practical points
- Check the current Order under section 2 before anything else. If the country is not listed, the Act is not the route.
- Confirm the judgment is final and conclusive between the parties, and identify which of the seven section 3 factors you are relying on.
- Calculate the unsatisfied balance. Section 5(3) limits enforcement to that part.
- Treat the application as the only shot for a commercial judgment, because section 12(1) removes the appeal.
- For matrimonial judgments, confirm the marriage was registered under the Marriage Registration Ordinance, and note that any appeal needs leave under section 12(2).
The Act is a marked improvement on what it replaced, in that it puts recognition, registration and enforcement into one statute with a clear procedure. Its reach, though, is still defined by an executive Order rather than by the quality of the foreign judgment, and that is the constraint to explain to a client early, ideally while the dispute resolution clause is still being negotiated.
