The definition of ‘judgment’ in the HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention: a challenge for regulating transnational enforcement

It cannot be a surprise that the precise definition of ‘judgment’ is central to the understanding of the latest legal instrument of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).1 After all, the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention),2 which was adopted on 2 July 2019, marks the culmination of the Judgments Project, which was pursued for over almost three decades after 1992.3 Nevertheless, a number of questions lurk behind this seemingly self-explaining key term, and these questions start rising to the surface—namely, on the level of the treaty’s text versions. For example, the translation coordinated between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland almost completely dispenses with the term ‘Urteil’ (judgment) and instead relies on the abstract term ‘Entscheidung’ (decision).4 This sets it apart remarkably from the more nuanced wording5 of all UN languages, among which only the English and French (jugement) versions are authentic.6 These seemingly small divergences point to major challenges that a uniform application of the Hague Convention will face, even with respect to core issues. Obviously, the accurate definition of ‘judgment’ is crucial for determining which kinds of individual decisions qualify as ‘judgments’ within the scope of the Convention and, thus, are eligible for transnational enforcement.