Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones: Rethinking the Law on Foreign Judgments

Abstract

The common law on the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments is characterised by immobility in most jurisdictions, but has recently undergone significant development in Canada. The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Beals v. Saldanha provides a perfect opportunity to evaluate the new directions in which Canada is seeking to take the common law; and to ask whether some of the received authority of the common law is, quite apart from the work being done in Canada, not now due for reconsideration. The submission is that cautious and incremental development of the law on foreign judgments, especially by reference to broad and general principles of the common law, has much to recommend it. An assessment of the state of the common law world is made in at attempt to see where the common law may improve itself from within its own resources, the better to serve the interests of those who obtain, and those who are on the receiving end of, foreign judgments.