7
مسلم
HOUSE OF LORDS
PROTECTION OF TRADING INTERESTS BILL
DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
NOTES ON CLAUSES
CLAUSE 5
1. This clause clarifies a question of law which is in doubt.
It provides that United Kingdom courts shall not enforce
judgments for multiple damages given by courts of overseas
countries. The rationale for the provision is that since
multiple damage judgments are essentially penal they should be
treated in the same way as any other overseas judgment of a
public penal character and should not be enforced by our courts.
The provision is particularly addressed to treble damage
given in favour of private persons
judgments/in anti-trust cases in US Courts. As the law stands
at present it is by no means clear whether our courts would
enforce such judgments. The case of Jones v Jones (1889)
22 QBD p.425 suggests that they might not. In that case, the
court was called upon to determine whether discovery should be
allowed in an action where treble damages were sought and held that
treble damages could not possibly be
"compensation to the person grieved and are plainly
inflicted on the offender as a punishment.
words they are a penalty". (p.427)
In other
However, the expression "penalty" for the purpose of determining
whether a foreign judgment is penal or not has been given a
somewhat narrow interpretation by the courts.
In Huntington
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