Foreign judgment

Foreign judgments (외국판결/外國判決) may be reconized and enforced in due course in Korea.

Foreign arbitral awards (외국중재판정/外國仲裁判定) are also duly recognized and enforced in Korea under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention) to which Korea acceded in 1973.

Key words
foreign judgment, international jurisdiction, arbitration award, civil execution, judicial mutual assistance

Statutory ground
The Civil Procedure Act (민사소송법/民事訴訟法) and the Civil Execution Act (민사집행법/民事執行法) set forth the following requirements in order for a foreign judgment to be recognised without re-examining the merits of the decision by the Korean courts:
 * The foreign judgment must be final and conclusive;
 * The foreign court should be recognised in accordance with the principles of international jurisdiction, pursuant to the laws and subordinate statutes of the Republic of Korea or its treaties;
 * Proper service of process must have been made on the parties;
 * The judgment by the foreign court is not contrary to the public policy or morals of Korea; and
 * There must be reciprocity (i.e., the foreign judgment must be from a jurisdiction that recognises and enforces Korean judgments).

Reciprocity does not require a formal reciprocal agreement between the countries. It is sufficient under Korean law if the standards by which foreign judgments are recognised and enforced in the other country are not significantly different from the standards in Korea or are not excessively onerous as compared to the standards in Korea.

Foreign proceedings
There are some questions regarding the procedures for obtaining oral or documentary evidence for use in civil proceedings in other jurisdictions.

There are no procedures by which a party to a foreign civil litigation may petition a Korean court to order the production of oral or documentary evidence for use in a case pending in a foreign court.

However, a foreign court may request the cooperation of Korean courts in certain circumstances. According to the Korean Act on International Judicial Mutual Assistance in Civil Matters (국제민사사법공조법/國際民事司法共助法), a foreign court may request the Korean courts to provide assistance in the service of court documents, or the examination of evidence (e.g., the examination of witness) to be used in the foreign court proceedings. Such a request will be accepted by the Korean courts if the following requirements, among others, are met:
 * A judicial cooperation treaty is concluded between the foreign court’s government and Korea or there is a guarantee by the foreign court’s government that it will comply with any request for judicial cooperation by the Korean courts with respect to the same or similar matters;
 * Such cooperation is not contrary to the public policy and morals of Korea;
 * The request is made through proper diplomatic channels; and
 * The foreign court’s government guarantees the payment of expenses incurred in rendering the assistance requested.