Editor's note

• Author: Editor's note
• Pages: 157-158

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 13 JUNE 2018 NO. 2

DOI 10.3868/s050-007-018-0011-3

FOCUS

RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS BETWEEN CHINA, JAPAN

AND SOUTH KOREA IN THE NEW ERA

EDITOR’S NOTE

ZHANG Wenliang*

We live in the era of globalization, which means that capitals, persons, labor, goods or

service cross national borders easily. Against this backdrop, it may be asked if judgments

delivered by national courts can also move across borders as persons or goods do. In the

European Union (EU), traditionally there are four freedoms, i.e. free movement of goods,

capital, services, and labor. Now they are of no less interest in talking about free

movement of judgments. At the global level, we have Hague Conference on Private

International Law, which is very enthusiastic about the judgments convention project, and

the big powers including US, China, Japan, EU and South Korea are all mobilized to the

great cause. In short, the recognition issue becomes a very prominent practical matter of

global concern. In East Asia where several important world players are located — China,

Japan and South Korea, there is no smooth movement of judgments. However, we only

have a lasting dilemma, especially between China and the other two powers. Therefore, a

special seminar was organized on December 19, 2017 to address the perennial stalemate

beneath the recognition and enforcement of judgments between the aforesaid three

jurisdictions. This seminar drew the prominent scholars from the three jurisdictions and

several articles presented in the seminar are included in this special issue of Frontiers of

Law in China.

The first article is from Prof. Yasuhiro OKUDA, “Unconstitutionality of Reciprocity

Requirement for Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Japan,” which

discusses the constitutionality of Japan’s reciprocity requirement against the repeated

refusals of Chinese judgments over the years. This article puts forward a good and

persuasive perspective in the sense of resolving the long lasting reciprocity-centered

quarrel between China and Japan over recognition and enforcement of judgments.

The second article is from Prof. Kwang Hyun SUK, “Recognition and Enforcement of

Judgments between China, Japan and South Korea in the New Era: South Korean Law

* (张文亮) Ph.D. in International Law, School of Law, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; Assistant

Professor, School of Law, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Contact:

zhang.wenliang@hotmail.com