Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Recent Trends in the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The continuing evolution of the “real and substantial connection” test for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments remains a topic of immediate interest. Since the landmark decision in Morguard Investments Ltd. v. De Savoye, and more recently in Beals v. Saldanha, Canadian jurisprudence for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments has been dominated by judicial and legislative unilateralism: the establishment of a domestically imposed standard (the lex fori) striving towards national uniformity informed by private international law (or conflict of laws) principles. While the “real and substantial connection” test for jurisdiction simpliciter provides a flexible analytical framework for a Canadian domestic court in assuming or declining jurisdiction over a foreign defendant, it does not completely restrict jurisdictional challenges by a non-resident (foreign) defendant. The residual discretion afforded by the forum non conveniens doctrine, coupled with other forms of jurisdictional challenges, remains a robust procedural tool in a litigator’s arsenal, while the boundaries of the recognized defences of fraud, natural justice and public policy continue to be tested. Part One reviews the Canadian unilateralist approach to recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, canvassing the application of “real and substantial connection” test through a review of recent court decisions, including the Court of Appeal decision in Pro Swing Inc. v. Elta Golf Inc. on the recognition and enforceability of a non-monetary judgment. Part Two discusses bilateralism highlighted by a recent Ontario decision applying the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments (UK) Act. It will also identify current provincial reciprocal enforcement of judgments legislation involving reciprocating U.S. states and foreign nations. The Uniform Law Commission of Canada’s uniform legislation recently implemented by the Saskatchewan Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act will be highlighted. In Part Three, unilateralism through an overview of the Hague Choice of Court Convention will conclude with a recommendation for ratification and implementation by Canada.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.009 | 0.026 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.007 | 0.016 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.014 | 0.010 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.013 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.005 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.003 | 0.006 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".