Enforcement of foreign judgments – Israel as a case study

Figures & data

Figure 1 . Subject matters.

Table 1 Enforcement by subject matter.

Subject Matter	Enforcement Denied	Enforcement Approved
Contracts and commercial	11 (22%)	39 (78%)
torts	1 (33.3%)	2 (66.67%)
family	13 (48.15%)	14 (51.85%)
bankruptcy	4 (80%)	1 (20%)
corporate	0 (0%)	7 (100%)
intellectual property	0 (0%)	1 (100%)
Other/ unclear	4 (19.05%)	17 (80.95%)

Table 2 Reasons for denying enforcement.

Reason for denying enforcement	Number of Cases	Percentage
Judgment is not civil or not a judgment (Section 1 of the Enforcement Law)	3	5.35%
Lack of jurisdiction in the courts of the issuing state (Section 3(1))	5	8.92%
Judgment not final (Section 3(2) of the Enforcement Law)	7	12.50%
Judgment is against public policy (Section 3(3) of the Enforcement Law)	4	7.14%
Lack of reciprocity in enforcing Israeli Judgments (Section 4 of the Enforcement Law)	3	5.35%
Statute of limitation (Section 5 of the Enforcement Law)	4	7.14%
Fraud (Section 6(a)(1) of the Enforcement Law)	0	0%
Due process – lack of opportunity to present case in the foreign court (Section 6(a)(2) of the Enforcement Law)	5	8.92%
Contradicting Israeli rules of jurisdiction in private international law (Section 6(a)(3) of the Enforcement Law)	6	10.71%
Contradicting judgment (Section 6(a)(4) of the Enforcement Law)	4	7.14%
Pending procedure (Section 6(a)(5) of the Enforcement Law)	0	0%
Sovereignty or national security (Section 7 of the Enforcement Law)	0	0%
Impossible to implement (Section 3(4) of the Enforcement Law)	3	5.35%
technical/ procedural/ other	12	21.42%
	Total = 56

Table 3 Enforcement statistics by characteristics of countries with US judgments.

Variable	Average – Enforcement Denied	Average – Enforcement Approved	Difference
Trade	10,814.59	17,108.47	6,293.88
Mutual vote	0.69	0.74	0.05
Polity Score	9.56	8.86	−0.7
Independence of Judiciary	1.79	1.73	−0.06
Human Rights	1.12	0.71	−0.41

Table 4 Enforcement statistics by characteristics of countries without US judgments.

Variable	Average – Enforcement Denied	Average – Enforcement Approved	Difference
Trade	2,999.3	3,838.5	839.2
Mutual vote	0.58	0.55	−0.03
Polity Score	9.26	7.36	−1.9
Independence of Judiciary	1.65	1.35	−0.3
Human Rights	1.29	0.93	−0.36

Table 5 Statistical data about cases and courts.

variable	Percentage enforced	Chi2	P-value
Panel = no	71.59%	0.054	0.86
Panel = yes	69.23%
Central district = no	54.54%	3.61	0.057 *
Central district = yes	75%
Supreme court = no	70.96%	0.0018	0.97
Supreme court = yes	71.42%
Plaintiff corporation = no	65.33%	3.49	0.06 *
Plaintiff corporation = yes	82.05%
Defendant corporation = no	69.41%	0.44	0.5
Defendant corporation = yes	75.86%
Treaty (with US cases) = no	71.42%	0.05	0.83
Treaty (with US cases) = yes	68.75%
Treaty (without US cases) = no	60.52%	0.33	0.57
Treaty (without US cases) = yes	68.75%

* p < 0.1

Table 6 Logit regressions with subject matters.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
VARIABLES	enforcement	enforcement	enforcement	enforcement	enforcement
Supreme	0.0229	0.0604	−0.0287	0.0232	−0.0165
Court	(1.402)	(1.443)	(1.499)	(1.446)	(1.466)
Central district	1.242*	1.171*	1.228*	1.206*	1.283**
	(0.690)	(0.659)	(0.710)	(0.660)	(0.648)
Panel	0.351	0.400	0.0282	0.391	0.373
	(1.350)	(1.330)	(1.506)	(1.358)	(1.329)
Defendant	−0.0745	−0.0501	−0.113	−0.0478	−0.0249
Corporation	(0.711)	(0.755)	(0.698)	(0.743)	(0.751)
Plaintiff	0.319	0.328	0.352	0.328	0.296
Corporation	(0.706)	(0.690)	(0.699)	(0.694)	(0.699)
Treaty	0.150	0.190	0.309	0.221	0.0862
	(0.961)	(0.969)	(0.937)	(0.929)	(0.915)
Human rights	−0.0250				−0.328
	(0.714)				(0.311)
Judicial	0.145	−0.479
independence	(1.222)	(0.791)
Polity score	−0.233		−0.243	−0.170
	(0.202)		(0.166)	(0.105)
Mutual vote	1.468	−0.409	2.468
	(4.617)	(4.456)	(4.476)
Trade	7.88e-05	9.33e-05		8.36e-05	7.85e-05
	(7.29e-05)	(6.06e-05)		(6.13e-05)	(6.35e-05)
Family	−1.402*	−1.299*	−1.459*	−1.368*	−1.343*
	(0.793)	(0.756)	(0.768)	(0.765)	(0.754)
Bankruptcy	−2.541*	−2.556**	−2.476*	−2.550**	−2.589**
	(1.324)	(1.280)	(1.403)	(1.267)	(1.236)
Unclear/ other	0.0468	0.107	0.180	0.0723	0.0924
	(0.738)	(0.724)	(0.716)	(0.739)	(0.754)
US	−1.032	−0.809	0.480	−0.683	−0.998
	(1.943)	(1.965)	(1.391)	(1.554)	(1.492)
Side implement	−0.331	−0.341	−0.0454	−0.345	−0.258
	(0.981)	(0.974)	(1.046)	(0.977)	(0.960)
Constant	0.565	0.512	0.515	1.013	−0.0702
	(2.163)	(1.993)	(1.909)	(1.143)	(0.815)
Observations	102	102	102	102	102

Robust standard errors in parentheses

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1.

Table 7 Logit regressions without subject matters.

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)
VARIABLES	enforcement	enforcement	enforcement	enforcement	enforcement
Supreme	−0.422	−0.388	−0.396	−0.442	−0.432
Court	(1.227)	(1.261)	(1.282)	(1.256)	(1.312)
Central district	1.200*	1.126*	1.192*	1.197*	1.251*
	(0.654)	(0.644)	(0.673)	(0.643)	(0.645)
Panel	0.497	0.528	−0.00960	0.527	0.508
	(1.142)	(1.141)	(1.246)	(1.143)	(1.161)
Defendant	0.531	0.523	0.504	0.531	0.590
Corporation	(0.657)	(0.691)	(0.666)	(0.681)	(0.686)
Plaintiff	0.984*	0.983*	1.057*	1.002*	0.973*
Corporation	(0.578)	(0.574)	(0.563)	(0.577)	(0.580)
Treaty	0.0557	0.102	0.207	0.0784	−0.0492
	(0.858)	(0.860)	(0.846)	(0.822)	(0.813)
Human rights	−0.0327				−0.428
	(0.744)				(0.293)
Judicial	−0.102	−0.675
independence	(1.392)	(0.728)
Polity score	−0.216		−0.291	−0.230*
	(0.261)		(0.199)	(0.133)
Mutual vote	0.841	−0.370	1.852
	(3.955)	(3.752)	(3.899)
Trade	0.000100	0.000110**		0.000102*	9.22e-05
	(6.67e-05)	(5.50e-05)		(5.45e-05)	(5.81e-05)
US	−1.265	−1.097	0.664	−1.053	−1.343
	(1.614)	(1.621)	(1.191)	(1.334)	(1.323)
Side implement	−0.355	−0.366	0.0898	−0.355	−0.311
	(0.929)	(0.911)	(0.972)	(0.907)	(0.954)
Constant	0.447	0.114	0.635	0.831	−0.675
	(1.988)	(1.634)	(1.637)	(1.232)	(0.697)
Observations	112	112	112	112	112

Robust standard errors in parentheses

*** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1

Table

Name of Country	Number of judgments
Belgium	3
Canada	3
China	2
Czechia	2
France	5
Georgia	1
Germany	6
Hong Kong	1
Hungary	1
Italy	3
Palestinian Authority	2
Poland	1
Russian Federation	6
Spain	1
Switzerland	5
Turkey	1
Ukraine	1
United Kingdom	9
United States of America	60
Uruguay	1
	Total = 114