Enforce UK Court Judgment in Italy: Hague 2019 Guide

What the 1 July 2025 entry into force means for British creditors, expats and businesses with Italian debtors — and what it does not change

#59 · LANG: English (en) · AREA: Debt Recovery & Enforcement in Italy · TYPE: Checklist / documents needed · MODEL: Sonnet 5 · SEO 84/100 · Flesch Reading Ease 35 · fonte: EN_PT_batch_articles_12items_2026-08-14_h10-16_a0my.doc

URL: https://panatolawfirm.com/en/enforce-uk-court-judgment-italy

ABSTRACT: On 1 July 2025, the Hague Convention of 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters entered into force for the United Kingdom, creating the first structured bilateral framework for recognising British court judgments in Italy since Brexit severed the Brussels I bis Regulation's automatic enforcement machinery at the end of 2020. For UK creditors holding a money judgment against an Italian debtor, this is significant — but the change is narrower, and more conditional, than many commentators suggest. This guide explains precisely what has changed, what has not, and the procedural steps you must follow in Italy today.

You won your case in the English High Court. The judgment is clear. The defendant owes you £180,000 and has assets in Italy — property in Verona, a bank account in Milan. Before 1 July 2025, the path to enforcement in Italy was slow, uncertain, and entirely governed by Italian domestic rules that date from 1995. From 1 July 2025 onwards, a new international instrument is in play. Whether it helps you depends entirely on when your proceedings were filed and what your judgment covers.

How do I enforce a UK court judgment in Italy after Brexit?

The short answer: through an application to the Corte d'Appello (Court of Appeal) of the Italian enforcement district. This has not changed. What has changed is the legal basis on which Italian courts assess your judgment's eligibility for recognition.

Until 31 December 2020, Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 — commonly called Brussels I bis — gave UK creditors near-automatic enforcement across all EU Member States, including Italy. Brexit ended that. The United Kingdom became a third country, and from 1 January 2021 Italian courts reverted to their domestic private international law, namely Articles 64 to 67 of Italian Law No. 218 of 31 May 1995 (Legge 31 maggio 1995, n. 218, artt. 64-67), which governs the recognition of foreign judgments in Italy.

Under Law 218/1995, a foreign judgment — including an English or Scottish one — can be recognised and declared enforceable in Italy without a retrial on the merits, provided it meets a set of conditions / the following conditions: the foreign court had proper jurisdiction; the parties were duly summoned and able to defend; the judgment is final and binding; it does not conflict with an Italian judgment or pending Italian proceedings; it does not violate Italian public policy (ordine pubblico); and it does not concern matters reserved to Italian exclusive jurisdiction.

The Hague Convention of 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters (Convenzione dell'Aja del 2 luglio 2019 sul riconoscimento e l'esecuzione delle sentenze straniere in materia civile e commerciale), which the UK ratified and which entered into force with respect to / in relation to the UK on 1 July 2025, now supplements this framework for a defined category of judgments. Italy, as an EU Member State, applies the Convention through the EU's own adherence to the instrument. The European Union signed the Convention in 2022, and Member States including Italy are bound through that adherence.

The procedural gateway in Italy remains the Corte d'Appello. What the Convention does is standardise and, in certain respects, simplify the grounds on which enforcement may be refused, creating a shared international language between the UK and EU courts that did not exist during the post-Brexit intervening period / post-Brexit interim.

Does the Hague 2019 Convention apply to my Italian debtor?

This is where many creditors fall into the first and most consequential error. The Convention applies only to judgments arising from proceedings instituted after 1 July 2025. If you filed your claim in the English courts before that date, the Convention does not govern your enforcement in Italy. You rely entirely on Law 218/1995 and Italian domestic rules.

This cut-off date is fixed and admits of no exception. A judgment handed down in 2026 on proceedings commenced in 2024 falls outside the Convention's scope. Claimants should plan accordingly. / Creditors are advised to plan accordingly.

Even for post-July 2025 proceedings, the Convention's scope is limited to civil and commercial matters — broadly construed, but subject to material exclusions. Check whether your judgment is eligible before assuming the new framework applies.

What judgments are excluded from the Hague 2019 Convention?

The exclusions in Article 2 of the Convention are extensive and of practical significance to practitioners advising international creditors. The Convention does not apply to judgments in insolvency proceedings, revenue and customs matters, defamation (a deliberate carve-out given divergent national approaches to free expression), privacy, intellectual property, antitrust, matters concerning the status or legal capacity of natural persons, family law, maintenance obligations, trusts, and arbitration. It also excludes interim or provisional measures, including freezing orders.

For a UK creditor whose judgment arises from a straightforward commercial contract dispute or an unpaid invoice, the Convention is likely to apply — if the proceedings were filed after 1 July 2025. For a creditor with a defamation award, a freezing injunction, or a judgment ancillary to insolvency proceedings, Italian domestic law under Law 218/1995 remains the only available route.

Unlike in most common-law systems, where a foreign money judgment is treated as a simple debt that can be sued upon in the local courts with relative speed, Italian law requires a formal judicial declaration of enforceability — a process that, under the domestic regime, historically involved an application to a full panel of the Corte d'Appello and could extend to eighteen months or more before attachment of assets (pignoramento) could proceed. The Hague 2019 framework, by aligning grounds for refusal with those familiar to English courts, is expected to reduce the scope for tactical objections by Italian debtors — but it does not eliminate the judicial step or shorten it to a purely administrative one.

Do I still need exequatur to enforce an English judgment in Italy?

Yes. This is the second major misconception circulating among UK creditors and their advisers. The Hague 2019 Convention does not abolish the requirement for a declaratory judgment from an Italian court before enforcement can begin. What it does is define, with greater international consensus, the limited grounds on which an Italian court may refuse recognition.

Under Italian procedural law, once the Corte d'Appello issues its declaration of enforceability, the judgment creditor may proceed to a formal demand before enforcement (precetto), followed by attachment of assets (pignoramento) — whether against movable property, bank accounts or real estate. The precetto gives the debtor a short window (typically not less than ten days under Article 480 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, codice di procedura civile) to comply voluntarily before compulsory enforcement begins.

One area of close judicial scrutiny under both the domestic and Convention frameworks is service of process. Italian courts examining a foreign judgment will look carefully at whether the Italian defendant was properly served at the time of the UK proceedings. Defective or substituted service that would satisfy English procedural rules may not satisfy the Italian court's assessment of whether the defendant had genuine notice and the opportunity to defend. This is a recurring ground of challenge by Italian debtors and should be anticipated from the moment proceedings are contemplated.

Practical steps for UK creditors enforcing in Italy from 1 July 2025

The first task is to identify the correct enforcement district. Competence lies with the Corte d'Appello in whose district the debtor is domiciled or the assets are located. Italy has 26 Courts of Appeal; choosing the right one is not a formality — filing in the wrong district wastes time and costs.

Gather the documents your application will require: a certified copy of the UK judgment, together with a certified translation into Italian; proof that the judgment is final and not subject to ordinary appeal in the United Kingdom; and evidence of proper service of the original UK proceedings. Where the debtor is a company, a company search (visura camerale) from the Italian Chamber of Commerce confirming current registered address and legal representatives is advisable before filing.

Budget for the process realistically. Court filing fees in Italy are calculated by reference to the value of the judgment (the contributo unificato scale). Legal fees for the Italian-side proceedings are additional. Enforcement proceedings — once recognition is obtained — involve further costs for a bailiff (ufficiale giudiziario) and, where real property is involved, a court-supervised sale. A creditor who wins recognition of a £180,000 judgment and then abandons enforcement because of the cascading Italian procedural costs achieves nothing.

The Latin maxim vigilantibus iura subveniunt — the law assists those who are watchful — is apposite here. Creditors who move promptly, before an Italian debtor dissipates or transfers assets, are materially better placed than those who wait to see whether the debtor will pay voluntarily.

As the legal theorist Jeremy Bentham observed, the value of a legal right is nothing without the means of its enforcement. The Hague 2019 Convention is a meaningful step toward restoring those means for UK creditors in Italy — but it remains a framework, not a guarantee. Its practical effect will emerge incrementally, as the first wave of post-July 2025 applications works through the Italian Courts of Appeal.

The opening of this new chapter in UK-Italy judicial co-operation carries an underappreciated strategic implication: Italian defendants who previously weaponised the post-Brexit legal vacuum — arguing that the absence of a bilateral treaty created procedural uncertainty — will find that argument considerably harder to sustain for proceedings filed after 1 July 2025. Courts in Verona, Milan and Rome will increasingly need to engage with the Convention's grounds for refusal as a closed, internationally harmonised list rather than an open invitation to domestic public-policy objections. That shift, modest as it appears on paper, may prove the Convention's most consequential practical effect for creditors in the years ahead.

Image prompt: A British creditor in a quiet northern Italian city at dusk — Verona's old stone bridges visible through tall office windows — studying formal court documents spread across a wooden desk, an Italian legal seal pressed on a stamped page in the foreground. Warm amber and cool grey tones create a mood of careful determination rather than crisis. Documentary-style realism, no text elements, no digital screens.

Image file: enforce-uk-court-judgment-italy-cover

JSON-LD:

LANGUAGE QA: a checklist of conditions -> a set of conditions / the following conditions · gap years -> intervening period / post-Brexit interim · Plan accordingly. -> Claimants should plan accordingly. / Creditors are advised to plan accordingly. · broadly understood, but subject to significant exclusions -> broadly construed, but subject to material exclusions · practically important for anyone advising international creditors -> of practical significance to practitioners advising international creditors · The cutoff is hard and non-negotiable. -> This cut-off date is fixed and admits of no exception. · entered into force for the UK -> entered into force with respect to / in relation to the UK · make their first — and most costly — mistake -> fall into the first and most consequential error

CHECK:
AUTHORITY 1: Hague Convention of 2019 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters / EXISTS? Yes — hcch.net, full text published, UK entry into force 1 July 2025 confirmed by HCCH status table / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — Article 2 exclusions cited correctly; scope confirmed.

AUTHORITY 2: Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 (Brussels I bis) / EXISTS? Yes — EUR-Lex, OJ L 351, 20.12.2012 / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — cessation of application to UK from 1 January 2021 confirmed; near-automatic enforcement mechanism correctly described.

AUTHORITY 3: Italian Law No. 218 of 31 May 1995, Articles 64-67 / EXISTS? Yes — normattiva.it, full legislative text available / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — conditions for recognition of foreign judgments accurately stated; Corte d'Appello competence confirmed.

AUTHORITY 4: Italian Code of Civil Procedure, Article 480 / EXISTS? Yes — normattiva.it / CONTENT MATCHES? Yes — ten-day minimum notice for precetto confirmed.

OVERALL: GREEN — all four primary legal authorities confirmed as to existence and relevance. No invented citations. UK entry-into-force date (1 July 2025) verified via HCCH official status table.

LOCAL NOTE:
1. Search intent targeted: informational with strong transactional undertow — the reader holds or is about to obtain a UK judgment and is actively researching the Italian enforcement pathway; conversion to instruction of Italian counsel is the natural next step.
2. Local-market framing used: the article addresses British creditors and UK-based businesses directly, anchored in the post-Brexit experience and the collapse of Brussels I bis coverage; comparison drawn explicitly to common-law enforcement assumptions (foreign judgment as a simple debt actionable without prior judicial declaration) to flag the Italian divergence.
3. Italian terms retained untranslated: precetto and pignoramento are kept in italics alongside their English renderings on first use because they are locked terminology under the firm's style guide and because Italian procedural stages are not safely paraphraseable without risk of inaccuracy; ordine pubblico retained once in italics as a term of art that Italian courts apply with specific case-law content not captured by the English 'public policy'.