Singapore repeals the Reciprocal Enforcement of Commonwealth Judgments Act 1921

In an announcement issued on March 1, 2023, Singapore’s Ministry of Law announced the repeal of the Reciprocal Enforcement of Commonwealth Judgments Act 1921 (RECJA) with effect from March 1, 2023. With the repeal of RECJA, Singapore’s statutory framework recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in civil proceedings is consolidated under a single statute, which is the Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act 1959 (REFJA). Final money judgments from the superior courts of Australia, Brunei, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom which were previously registrable under the RECJA are now registrable under the REFJA, joining the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region which was, before March 1, 2023, the only jurisdiction gazetted under the REFJA.

It was announced in 2019 that the RECJA were to be repealed from a date to be determined by the Singapore government. At that time, the REFJA was also amended in significant ways to mainly expand its scope. Specifically, jurisdictions gazetted under the RECJA were to be transferred to the amended REFJA. The inclusion of the “new” jurisdictions mentioned above in the REFJA means that Windward Islands does not appear to be transferred over. Further, all states of India are now covered under the REFJA. The State of Jammu and Kashmir were excluded previously in the RECJA.

More about Singapore’s statutory and common law rules for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments can be found in Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Asia and Asian Principles for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments.