Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Malaysia: Federal Court confirms dual routes to enforce UK-seated arbitral awards: REJA via English confirmation judgment or AA 2005, with minimal curial review and limited debtor defences

Published on: 21 November 2025

Published by a LexisNexis Arbitration expert

Legal News

Article summary

ING Bank NV v Tumpuan Megah Development Sdn Bhd Civil Appeal No. 02(i)-19-06-2024(W) What are the practical implications of this case?

This Federal Court ruling carries notable procedural and substantive consequences for arbitration and commercial litigation practitioners. It confirms that an award creditor holding a foreign arbitral award from a reciprocating country (such as the UK) enjoys a strategic election between:

enforcing the award directly under the AA 2005; or
obtaining a ‘confirmation judgment’ at the seat and enforcing that judgment via the REJA 1958.

The court found that REJA and the AA are distinct, self-contained regimes; the AA does not supersede or displace REJA. This settles that taking the REJA pathway is a legitimate statutory route, not any species of ‘judgment laundering’. The decision has immediate consequences for client strategy: advisers to award creditors may now treat the REJA course as a viable, and potentially more robust, enforcement approach. By contrast, advisers to award debtors should note that where a creditor proceeds under REJA, the debtor’s objections are strictly limited to the specified grounds in section 5 of the REJA 1958, and the broader ‘passive remedies’ found in the AA cannot be imported...

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