Enforcement of Foreign Gambling Debts: Mapping the Worth of the Public Policy Defence

Ebenezer O. I. Adodo

Solicitor and Advocate, Supreme Court of Nigeria

JPrivIntL Vol 1 Issue 2 (October 2005)

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Abstract

This article evaluates the defence of public policy raised to resist enforcement of valid foreign gambling debts. Notably, there are two categories of public policy in private international law: domestic public policy and local public policy operating at international level. Emerging trends in the sphere of foreign gambling enforcement have provoked a vexed question: Where the stringent public policy of the lex fori, in the conception of the forum courts, renders unenforceable foreign gambling debts valid under the governing law, is a foreign judgment based on such debts similarly liable to debarment? In Liao Eng Kiat v Burswood Nominees Ltd, the apex court of Singapore answered this question in the negative. By this answer, the Singapore Court of Appeal has effectively established a third category of public policy in Singapore conflict of laws jurisprudence. This article considers the propriety of inventing a third category of public policy. In order to underpin the full implication of Burswood Nominees we propose to consider the position in England and some jurisdictions in the United States and Canada.

Keywords

Gambling debts; gambling contracts; foreign judgments; public policy; gaming and wagering transactions.