DIFC Courts and London Commercial Court sign Memorandum on enforcement

The DIFC Courts and the London Commercial Court have entered into a Memorandum of Guidance as to Enforcement. The Memorandum sets out the Courts’ mutual understanding of the circumstances in which they will enforce one another’s judgments and the procedures to be adopted in doing so.

The Memorandum was signed by the Honourable Mr Justice Cooke, Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court and by Michael Hwang S.C., Chief Justice of the DIFC Courts at the ninth meeting of the UK-UAE Task Force on 23^rd January 2013. The signing took place in the presence of Alastair Burt, British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and North Africa and His Excellency Dr Anwar Gargash, the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

The Memorandum is a significant step forward in the increasingly close relationship between the UK and the UAE. It also represents an important recognition by the English Courts of the enforceability of DIFC Court judgments under the common law.

Tom Montagu-Smith of XXIV Old Buildings drafted the Memorandum on behalf of the DIFC Courts.