Exequatur: enforcing a foreign judgment in Spain

An exequatur is the judicial procedure used to declare that a ruling issued outside Spain is recognised here and, when appropriate, to authorise its enforcement. This is defined by Ley 29/2015 (the Spanish International Legal Cooperation in Civil Matters Act), which is the rule applied when there is no European instrument or international convention covering the case.

It is advisable to separate 2 things that are often confused. Recognition means that the foreign judgment produces the same effects in Spain as it does in its country: for example, that a divorce is considered valid or that no one can sue you again for the same matter. Enforcement is something else: it means seizing assets, auctioning or demanding payment. For the former, an incidental recognition within another procedure is sometimes enough; for the latter, you need a proper enforceable title.

The exequatur is a residual route. Before filing it, you must check, in this order, if there is an applicable European Union regulation for the matter, if there is a multilateral convention (such as the 2019 Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments or the Lugano Convention) and if Spain has a bilateral convention with the country of origin. Only when there is none of that do you resort to Ley 29/2015. Choosing the wrong route costs months, because the court will dismiss the unnecessary claim.

A detail that decides the success of the matter: the exequatur does not reopen the lawsuit. The Spanish court does not re-evaluate the evidence or discuss whether the foreign judge applied their law correctly. It only checks a set of specific requirements.

In civil and commercial matters, the Brussels I bis Regulation applies. A ruling issued in another Member State is recognised in Spain without the need for any procedure, and if it is enforceable there, it is enforceable here without a prior declaration of enforceability. There is no exequatur claim, no prior court order and no waiting for months.

What you do have to provide is specific documentation: a copy of the ruling that meets the requirements to be considered authentic and the certificate issued by the court of origin at the request of any interested party, using the Annex I form. This certificate proves the enforceability, includes an extract of the ruling and includes, if any, the costs and the calculation of interest. A translation of the certificate can be requested, and a translation of the entire ruling is only required if the court cannot proceed without it.

The certificate is notified to the person against whom enforcement is sought before the first enforcement measure, accompanied by the ruling if they did not already know it. If they are domiciled in a Member State other than the one of origin, they can request a translation of the ruling, but only when it is not drafted in or accompanied by a translation into a language they understand or the official language of the place where they are domiciled. If the translation is requested in that case, until it is provided, only precautionary measures are possible, not enforcement measures.

The executed party can request that enforcement be refused, but only for specific reasons: manifest public policy, default of appearance without regular summons and time to defend themselves, irreconcilability with another ruling, or conflict with jurisdiction rules in insurance, consumer, employment and exclusive jurisdiction matters. Beyond that, the ruling cannot be reviewed as to its substance.

Alongside Brussels I bis, there are European channels designed to collect debts: the European Enforcement Order for uncontested claims, which allows direct enforcement in another Member State (Denmark is excluded), the European order for payment procedure and the European small claims procedure, limited to claims of up to €5,000. Managora prepares the application for certification of the European Enforcement Order before the issuing Spanish body and submits it for you.

Here the map changes depending on the country of origin and, in some cases, depending on the date the lawsuit started. Before drafting anything, 3 details must be established: which State the ruling comes from, what matter it deals with and when the claim was filed in origin.

The 2019 Hague Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters has been in force for Spain, as part of the European Union, since 1 September 2023, and for the United Kingdom since 1 July 2025. It applies only to proceedings initiated when the convention was already in force between the 2 States, so an English lawsuit started in 2023 is not covered and one started in 2026 is. The convention prohibits reviewing the merits and specifies the grounds for refusal, but the procedure to request it remains that of the State where enforcement is sought: in Spain, the exequatur claim.

With Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, the 2007 Lugano Convention applies. There you do need to request the granting of enforcement, which is granted initially, without hearing the other party, once the authentic copy and the standard certification from the court of origin are presented. The other party can appeal within 1 month from the notification, or 2 months if they are domiciled in a State other than the one where enforcement was granted.

Spain has bilateral conventions on the recognition and enforcement of judgments with some countries, and that convention applies in preference to domestic law. When there is neither a regulation nor a convention, Ley 29/2015 comes into play and the classic exequatur is followed, which is the most frequent scenario with rulings from Latin America, the United States, Asia and Africa.

A separate case: foreign arbitral awards. They are not recognised through Ley 29/2015 nor do they go to the same body. Jurisdiction belongs to the Civil and Penal Chamber of the High Court of Justice, and the framework is the 1958 New York Convention. Confusing a judgment and an award is a mistake that is paid for with inadmissibility.

The exequatur claim is filed before the Civil Section of the Tribunal de Instancia of the domicile of the party against whom recognition or enforcement is sought, or of the domicile of the person affected by the effects of the ruling. If there is no domicile in Spain, the place of enforcement or the place where the ruling must produce effects dictates the jurisdiction. And if it cannot be established that way either, the law closes the door to any vacuum: the competent court, as a last resort, is the one where the exequatur claim is filed. If the matter is commercial, the Commercial Section handles it; if the other party is in insolvency proceedings and the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the insolvency judge, it goes there and is processed as an insolvency incident.

A note on judicial organisation that matters to know where to file: the former Juzgados de Primera Instancia (Courts of First Instance) were transformed into Civil Sections of the Tribunales de Instancia in stages during 2025, and the process was completed on 31 December 2025. As of 2026, the body is called the Civil Section of the Tribunal de Instancia.

The process requires a lawyer to sign the claim and a procurador to hold the procedural representation: it is a legal requirement, not an option, and that is why the document is submitted via LexNET through the procurador. It can be initiated by any person who proves a legitimate interest, through a claim directed against the party or parties against whom the ruling is to be enforced. The exequatur claim and the enforcement request can be combined in the same document, although nothing is enforced until the ruling granting the exequatur is issued. Precautionary measures can also be requested so that the debtor does not empty their assets while the process lasts.

The law lists what must accompany the claim: the original or authentic copy of the foreign ruling, duly legalised or apostilled; the document proving the delivery or notification of the summons if the ruling was issued in default; any document proving the finality and, where appropriate, the enforceability in the State of origin, a point that can be stated in the ruling itself; and the corresponding translations, which in practice mean a sworn translation into Spanish or the co-official language.

The Public Prosecutor always intervenes in these processes, so they are given a copy of the proceedings. Regarding the tasa (judicial fee), the exequatur is not subject to the fee for the exercise of jurisdictional power: it is not a declaratory process nor an enforcement of an extrajudicial title among those listed in Article 2 of Ley 10/2012, and that is the administrative criterion. Furthermore, natural persons are exempt in all cases. Therefore, there is no form 696 to self-assess or to attach to the exequatur claim.

The reasons are strictly listed in Article 46 of Ley 29/2015 and there are no others. Rulings contrary to public policy are not recognised. Neither are those issued with a manifest breach of the rights of defence: if there was a default of appearance, it is understood that this breach exists when the defendant was not delivered the summons or equivalent document in a regular manner and with sufficient time to defend themselves. That is why the proof of notification in origin is the piece that decides most exequaturs.

It is also refused when the foreign ruling pronounces on a matter of exclusive jurisdiction of the Spanish courts, or when the judge of origin assumed jurisdiction without a reasonable connection to the dispute. The law presumes that this connection exists if the foreign court used criteria similar to the Spanish ones.

The last 3 reasons look at consistency between rulings: that the foreign judgment is irreconcilable with another issued in Spain, that it is irreconcilable with an earlier one from a third State that meets the conditions to be recognised here, or that there is a pending dispute in Spain between the same parties and with the same object initiated before the foreign process.

Against this, the prohibition on reviewing the merits is absolute: recognition cannot be refused because the foreign court applied a different legal system from the one that would have applied according to Spanish rules. And if the ruling contains several pronouncements and only one is problematic, recognition of one or more of them can be granted and partially enforced.

The process ends by court order. The exequatur order can be appealed and, against what is resolved in the second instance, the extraordinary appeals admitted by procedural law can be filed. As long as the order is not final, there is no consolidated enforcement, although the precautionary measures requested at the beginning continue to protect the collection.

With the exequatur granted, the foreign ruling is enforced in Spain just like a Spanish one and by the rules of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil (Civil Procedure Act). This brings 2 deadlines that you must keep in mind. The court does not dispatch enforcement within the 20 days following the day on which the executed party is notified of the final order granting the exequatur, which is the conviction ruling for these purposes: the waiting period of Article 548 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil is not counted from the notification of the foreign judgment in its country of origin. And the enforcement action expires 5 years from the finality of the ruling, a deadline from Article 518 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil that also applies here, because the law expressly refers to the expiration of the enforcement action.

Procedural default interest is added to the conviction amount: from the moment the conviction ruling is issued, any conviction to pay a liquid amount accrues an annual interest equal to the legal interest of money increased by 2 points, unless there is an agreement or special provision.

If the debtor has no located assets, the enforcement allows requesting an asset investigation, the seizure of accounts, salaries, tax refunds and real estate. The exequatur does not create assets: if the debtor has nothing in Spain, what you get is a title that is alive for 5 years, renewable in its effect through acts that interrupt the expiration.

When what is pursued is a monetary debt born in Spain and there is no foreign judgment involved, the short path is usually another: the order for payment procedure (proceso monitorio). Managora prepares and submits it for you, and also drafts the application for certification of the European Enforcement Order when the debtor is in another Member State.

An exequatur as a main action is not always needed. To register foreign judicial rulings that no longer admit appeal in the Land, Commercial and Movable Property Registries, the law does not require a special procedure. The registrar verifies, before qualifying the title, the formal regularity and authenticity of the documents and that no cause for refusal of recognition applies. There is no prior written submissions (alegaciones) process for the counterpart here: Ley 29/2015 refers to general registry regulations, so the registrar qualifies within 15 days and, if they refuse the registration, the interested party can file a governmental appeal within 1 month or resort to the exequatur.

If the ruling is not final or definitive, only a preventive annotation is possible. And if the registrar decides against recognition, or cannot notify, the registration is suspended and refers the parties to the judge who must hear the recognition as a main action, that is, the exequatur.

Recognition can also be raised incidentally within another judicial procedure, when the foreign judgment is an argument in the lawsuit and not its object. In that case, the judge resolves within the process and the effect is limited to it.

Foreign public documents, such as a deed or an agreement formalised before an authority, follow their own rule: they are enforceable in Spain if they are in their country of origin and are not contrary to public policy, and they must have at least the same effectiveness as those issued by Spanish authorities. Here a Spanish notario (notary) or registry intervenes to give form to the document, but the prior analysis of whether it is valid and how it is enforced is done by us.