Recognition of foreign court decisions

The issue of recognizing foreign court decisions is regulated by the Private International Law Act. A foreign court decision is treated as equivalent to a decision of a court of the Republic of Croatia and has legal effect in the Republic of Croatia only if it is recognized by a Croatian court. This Act applies in cases where none of the European Union regulations governing the recognition of decisions in civil, commercial, family, inheritance and matrimonial matters apply.

Procedure

The decision on recognition is issued by the court in non-contentious proceedings. The application must be accompanied by proof that the foreign court decision (or settlement) is final and enforceable. The procedure involves both parties (unless the foreign court decision originates from a one-party procedure). It should be noted that the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia has adopted a binding position that, for example, in proceedings for the recognition of a foreign court decision on the adoption of a child, the only opposing party is the minor child. In practice, recognition is most commonly sought for the purpose of entering the fact of the divorce of a Croatian national into the civil registers of the Republic of Croatia, as well as for the collection of claims established by a foreign decision.

Rejection

The Act further provides situations in which recognition will be refused, for example: if, in the proceedings in which the decision was issued, the opposing party’s right to participate was violated; if the matter falls under the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or other authority of the Republic of Croatia; if the court that issued the decision based its jurisdiction solely on the presence of the defendant or the defendant’s property in the state of that court, and such presence is not directly connected to the subject matter of the proceedings; if there is a final judgment of a Croatian court in the same matter between the same parties; and if recognition would clearly be contrary to the public policy of the Republic of Croatia. Therefore, the court only examines whether the conditions for recognizing a foreign court decision in the Republic of Croatia, in accordance with the Private International Law Act, have been met, and does not examine the substance of the decision itself.

The decision on the recognition of a foreign court decision (or settlement) is issued in the form of a ruling, which may be appealed within 15 days.