AKMV 
Tip
If you are interested in the recognition of a foreign judgment in Slovakia, do not hesitate to contact us at recepcia@akmv.sk, and we will get back to you immediately.
Some decisions of foreign courts need to be recognised by a special procedure in a Slovak court.
According to § 68 para. 1 of Act no. 97/1963 Coll. on private international law and procedure (hereinafter referred to as “ZMPS”): “A foreign decision recognised by a Slovak court has the same legal effects as a decision of a Slovak court.”
Proceedings regarding the recognition of foreign judgments concerning divorce are quite common in courts. The procedure is similar for the recognition of foreign judgments concerning the determination of parentage, for example, in matters of establishing or contesting parentage, which are not as common.
The Slovak Republic is not bound by any international treaty that would regulate the rules for the recognition of foreign judgments in matters of determination of parentage. At the same time, the recognition of foreign judgments in matters of determination of parentage is excluded from the scope of Regulations Rome I, Rome II, and also the Hague Convention, which is referred to as a so-called negative definition of scope. Therefore, their recognition is governed by national law, i.e., the ZMPS.
A foreign judgment concerning the determination of parentage issued by a foreign court must, in most cases, be recognised to have legal effects in the territory of Slovakia. However, this is not a rule, and the law recognises two types of recognition of foreign judgments:
1. Informal Recognition
According to § 67 para. 3 of the ZMPS: “A foreign decision that does not require recognition by a special court declaration under this Act, an international treaty, or a legally binding act of the European Union, is recognised by the Slovak court ordering its execution or issuing a warrant for execution; if such a decision does not require execution, the Slovak authority recognises it by taking it into account as if it were a decision of a Slovak court.”
Thus, recognition of a foreign decision is not always required. According to § 68 para. 2 of the ZMPS: “Even without recognition, a foreign decision in matrimonial matters, in matters of determination (establishment or contestation) of parentage, adoption of a child, and in matters of limitation or deprivation of legal capacity, has the same legal effects as a decision of a Slovak court, if the participants are not citizens of the Slovak Republic and if it does not contravene the Slovak public order.” The condition for informal recognition is that the participants in the original proceedings were not citizens of the Slovak Republic and that it must not contravene public order. According to experts and court practice, public order is contravened, for example, by surrogacy or parentage of same-sex couples, but their opinions often differ and are not unified.
According to JUDr. Katarína Burdová, PhD.: “It is not possible to draw relevant conclusions from the decisions of Slovak courts for cases of formal recognition of a foreign judgment in matters of determination (establishment or contestation) of parentage, but we can consider them as certain indications suggesting that the implementation of surrogacy or other assisted reproduction methods abroad would not automatically and by itself necessarily constitute a reason for non-recognition of parentage of a child born either to a surrogate mother or as a result of such an assisted reproduction method. Whether this is truly the case will only be shown by further developments.”
2. Formal Recognition
According to § 67 para. 1 of the ZMPS: “A foreign decision in matters listed in § 65 may only be recognised by a special declaration of a Slovak court.“
§ 65 of the ZMPS defines which decisions need to be recognised:
- in matrimonial matters, if at least one of the participants in the proceedings is a Slovak citizen
- in matters of determination (establishment or contestation) of parentage, if at least one of the participants in the proceedings is a Slovak citizen
- foreign decisions in matters of child adoption, if the child or at least one of the adopters is a Slovak citizen, and
- foreign decisions on the limitation or deprivation of legal capacity of a Slovak citizen
Thus, the recognition of a foreign judgment in a matter of determination of parentage is always required if at least one of the participants is a Slovak citizen.
Where to submit a proposal for the recognition of a foreign judgment in matters of determination of parentage
According to § 68a, the Bratislava Regional Court has material jurisdiction to submit a proposal for the recognition of a foreign judgment in matters of determination of parentage. The court decides on the proposal by judgment.
Proposer and Participants in the Proceedings
The court does not act ex officio, and therefore the proceedings begin upon a proposal. The person actively legally entitled to submit the proposal is the one designated as a participant in the foreign judgment, and also the one who proves a legal interest in the matter. A prosecutor may also file a proposal for non-recognition of a foreign decision on the grounds that recognition would contravene the Slovak public order.
§ 68b para. 2 of the ZMPS: “Participants in the proceedings are the proposer and those against whom the foreign decision is to be recognised. If the proposer does not state them, the participants in the proceedings also include those who are designated as participants in the foreign decision. The participant in the proceedings concerning the recognition of a foreign decision on the limitation or deprivation of legal capacity is, in addition to the proposer, the guardian of the person whom the decision concerns.”
Attachments to the proposal for the recognition of a foreign judgment
The proposal must contain all legal requirements, and the proposer is obliged to attach:
- the original or officially certified copy of the foreign decision in full wording,
- a certificate from the relevant foreign authority on the legal force or enforceability of the foreign decision or on the fact that the decision can no longer be challenged by an ordinary remedy,
- documentary evidence that there is no impediment to recognition: the participant in the proceedings against whom the decision is to be recognised was deprived of the opportunity to act before this authority by the procedure of the foreign authority, especially if the summons or the proposal for the initiation of proceedings was not duly delivered to him; the court does not examine the fulfilment of this condition if the foreign decision was duly delivered to this participant and the participant did not appeal against it or if this participant declared that he does not insist on the examination of this condition,
- officially certified translations of the attached documents into the Slovak language.”
