ABSTRACT
Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments are governed by international law, national law and, lately, by European Community law for member states of that organisation. Recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments is a matter of domestic German law, principally the law relating to civil procedure. Article 328 ZPO is the cornerstone not only for the recognition but also for the enforcement of foreign judgments in Germany. Two important decisions of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, have recently dealt with the problem of punitive damage awards rendered in United States. The Decision of the German Supreme Court (BGH) concerned a Californian judgment handed down in a case involving allegations of sexual abuse and which included damages specifically for: past medical expenses; future medical treatment; placement costs; pain and suffering; and exemplary and punitive damages. Judgments may only be enforced after a competent German court has issued a judgment declaring the original judgment enforceable.
