Enforcement hub
Which foreign judgments are enforced in the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates enforces foreign judgments under conditions that took their current form with the procedural reform in force since 2 January 2023: competence of the originating court under its own law, proper notice to the parties, finality of the decision, no conflicting UAE judgment, no breach of UAE public policy, and reciprocity with the country where the judgment was made. Foreign interim and injunctive orders are generally not enforced in the UAE because they are not treated as final. This page indexes the bilateral routes that apply these conditions by country of origin.
Index
Start at the enforcement hub for the framework that applies before narrowing to the UAE side of any claim.
- Switzerland to UAE: reciprocity is tested against how Swiss courts treat UAE judgments, and against the separate arbitration award route.
- Cyprus to UAE: EU membership of the origin state does not by itself secure enforcement in the UAE; the standard cumulative conditions still apply.
- Germany to UAE: covers how German judgment finality and service rules line up against UAE admission conditions.
- Spain to UAE: covers the document legalisation chain a Spanish judgment or award needs before a UAE court will look at it.
- Luxembourg to UAE: relevant where the underlying claim runs through a Luxembourg fund vehicle.
- Malta to UAE: relevant where the investment structure or counterparty was set up in Malta.
Where the underlying dispute is a refusal rather than a completed judgment, the O8 refusal category sets out what triggered non-performance before enforcement became the question. This firm does not charge on a success-fee basis, and the entity handling any matter can be checked against the public registry linked in the footer.