In Jan. 2018, a Chinese local court accepted a case on recognition and enforcement of a Kenyan judgment, but the applicant withdrew the application afterwards.
On 4 Jan. 2018, the Ningbo Intermediate People’s Court in Zhejiang Province of China accepted Liu Chongliang(刘重亮) v. Webwave Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Kenya), Weng Shifang(翁士芳) and Peng Wanneng(彭万能) ((2018) Zhe 02 Xie Wai Ren No. 01)(（2018）浙02协外认1号）) (hereinafter “the Kenya Case”). This case involved recognition and enforcement of a judgment rendered in Kenya, but the applicant withdrew the application afterwards.
On 9 May 2019, the Ningbo Court delivered a ruling to grant the request of withdrawal.
According to our understanding, China has not signed a treaty involving the recognition and enforcement of judgments with Kenya, and the Chinese courts had not accepted cases concerning the recognition and enforcement of Kenyan judgments before this case.
In fact, up to now, among all African countries, China has only handled cases involving the recognition and enforcement of a Chadian judgment.
In the Chadian case, the Chinese court refused to recognize and enforce the Chadian judgment on the ground that China had not concluded relevant treaties with Chad, and Chadian courts had not recognized or enforced Chinese judgments before (i.e. the absence of reciprocity).
Since 2015, China has been liberalizing its rules for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. We hope Chinese courts to take a positive step towards recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered in African countries.
For more discussion on recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, please click here.
Regrettably, the Kenya case was eventually withdrawn, and thus we have no chance to know the attitude of Chinese courts on this issue.
Contributors: Meng Yu 余萌
