The New Moroccan Framework on International Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgment Enforcement – A Preliminary Critical Assessment

I. Introduction

Lastly out: the brand new Moroccan Code of Civil Process (Legislation No. 58.25), the preparation of which was beforehand introduced on this weblog, has been promulgated by Dahir (Royal Decree) No. 1.26.07 of 11 February 2026 and printed within the Official Journal (Al-Jarida Ar-Rasmiyya) No. 7485 of 23 February 2026. The legislative course of was fraught with difficulties, and the draft went forwards and backwards a number of occasions earlier than its remaining adoption earlier this 12 months. The Code will enter into power six months after its publication, i.e. on 24 August 2026.

As beforehand launched on this weblog, the preparatory work for the brand new Code dates again to 2023, when a primary draft was submitted to the Moroccan Home of Representatives (Draft No. 02.23). One of many major improvements of the brand new Code is the introduction, for the primary time in Moroccan historical past, of a listing of guidelines on worldwide jurisdiction. The Code additionally amends the present guidelines governing the popularity and enforcement of international judgments. Other than a couple of minor exceptions, the provisions contained within the new Code, each on worldwide jurisdiction and on the popularity and enforcement of international judgments, stay largely unchanged in contrast with these beforehand introduced, save for restricted linguistic and stylistic changes that don’t entail any substantive authorized implications.

What follows is a quick define of the primary options adopted within the Code, adopted by a brief evaluation.

II. Worldwide Judicial Jurisdiction

The foundations governing worldwide jurisdiction are actually expressly set out in Articles 72 to 75 of the brand new Code, contained in Chapter IV, entitled “Worldwide Judicial Jurisdiction” (al-Ikhtisas al-Qada’i ad-Duwali). The brand new guidelines could also be summarized as follows:

1. Normal jurisdiction based mostly on the defendant’s Moroccan nationality and the domicile or residence of a international defendant in Morocco (Articles 72 and 73)

Article 72 confers common jurisdiction on Moroccan courts on the idea of the Moroccan nationality of the defendant, even the place the latter has neither domicile nor residence in Morocco. Article 73, against this, adopts the classical precept of actor sequitur discussion board rei when proceedings are introduced in opposition to a international defendant. In each instances, jurisdiction is excluded the place the motion issues an immovable property situated overseas (final sentence of Articles 72 and 73).

2. Particular jurisdiction in instances the place the motion is introduced in opposition to international defendants with no domicile or residence in Morocco (Article 74)

Article 74 lays down an extra algorithm on particular worldwide jurisdiction relevant the place proceedings are introduced in opposition to international defendants who’ve neither domicile nor residence in Morocco. In such instances, Moroccan courts could assume jurisdiction when the motion issues:

1) property situated in Morocco, or obligations shaped, carried out, or to be carried out in Morocco (Article 74(1));

2) tortious legal responsibility the place the act giving rise to legal responsibility or the injury occurred in Morocco (Article 74(2));

3) the safety of mental property rights in Morocco (Article 74(3));

4) proceedings regarding companies in problem instituted in Morocco (Article 74(4));

5) instances involving a number of defendants, supplied that at the very least certainly one of them is domiciled in Morocco (Article 74(5));

6) upkeep obligations the place the upkeep beneficiary resides in Morocco (Article 74(6));

7) issues regarding the filiation of a minor residing in Morocco, or to guardianship over an individual or property (Article 74(7));

8) issues of non-public standing the place

(i) the plaintiff is Moroccan, or
(ii) the plaintiff is a foreigner residing in Morocco and the defendant has no recognized domicile overseas (Article 74(8))

9) dissolution of the marital bond the place

(i) the wedding contract was concluded in Morocco;
(ii) the motion is introduced by a partner who’s a Moroccan nationwide; or
(iii) one partner has deserted the opposite and established domicile overseas or has been deported from Morocco (Article 74(9)).

As well as, article 74 in tremendous additional clarifies the ancillary heads of worldwide jurisdiction. Specifically, Moroccan courts to listen to an unique motion are additionally empowered can assume jurisdiction to adjudicate any counterclaims and associated claims arising from the identical authorized relationship. Lastly, Moroccan courts are granted jurisdiction to order conservative and provisional measures meant to be executed in Morocco, even the place they lack jurisdiction over the deserves of the principal dispute.

3. Jurisdiction based mostly on the settlement of the events (Artwork. 75)

The brand new Code additionally recognises get together autonomy as an impartial foundation of worldwide jurisdiction. Beneath Article 75 para. 1, even the place a dispute wouldn’t in any other case fall throughout the extraordinary heads of jurisdiction set out above, Moroccan courts could assume jurisdiction the place the defendant expressly or implicitly consents to, or submits to, their jurisdiction. This jurisdiction by consent is, nevertheless, excluded the place the motion issues immovable property located overseas.

4. Ex officio declining jurisdiction within the occasion of non-appearance

The Code additional introduces a rule aimed toward stopping the train of jurisdiction by default (Article 75 in tremendous). The place the defendant fails to enter an look, the courtroom is required, ex officio, to say no jurisdiction and to declare itself incompetent.

III. Recognition and Enforcement of Overseas Judgments

The brand new guidelines on the popularity and enforcement of international judgments are actually set out in Articles 451 to 456 of the brand new Code. Whereas they largely reproduce current options, they nonetheless introduce a number of vital improvements.

1. Necessity of exequatur

Article 451 establishes the precept that international judgments can’t be enforced in Morocco as such. Their enforcement is topic to a previous declaration of enforceability (exequatur) by the competent Moroccan courtroom, granted in accordance with the circumstances laid down within the Code. Article 452 units out the procedural framework governing functions for exequatur, whereas article 454 specifies the documentary necessities and the avenues of enchantment relevant to exequatur proceedings.

2. Enforcement necessities

Article 453 units out the substantive circumstances that have to be glad earlier than a international judgment could also be declared enforceable in Morocco. These necessities could also be grouped as follows.

a) Necessities regarding the jurisdiction of the international courtroom. First, the international courtroom should not have dominated on a matter falling throughout the unique jurisdiction of Moroccan courts (Article 453(i)). As well as, the selection of the international discussion board should not have been tainted by fraud (Article 453(ii)).

 b) Requirement regarding due course of. Due course of ensures should have been revered, particularly insofar because the events have been duly summoned and correctly represented within the proceedings earlier than the international courtroom (Article 453(iii)).

 c) Necessities regarding finality and the absence of conflicting judgments. The judgment have to be remaining and conclusive beneath the regulation of the courtroom of origin (Article 453(iv)). Furthermore, it should not be incompatible with a judgment beforehand rendered by Moroccan courts (Article 453(v)).

 d) Requirement regarding public coverage. The international judgment should not violate Moroccan public coverage (Article 453(vi)).

 e) Requirement regarding the contravention of worldwide conventions ratified by Morocco. Lastly, the content material of the enforcement judgment should not contravene the provisions of any worldwide conference ratified by Morocco and printed within the Official Gazette (Article 453(vii)).

3. The reciprocity requirement

Along with the foregoing circumstances, Article 456 introduces the requirement of reciprocity as a situation for the enforcement of international judgments. Whereas the applying of the above necessities stays topic to worldwide conventions binding on Morocco, the brand new Code now expressly requires that the existence of reciprocal therapy between Morocco and the State of origin be taken into consideration when ruling on an utility for exequatur.

4. Devices eligible to enforcement

Article 455 extends the exequatur mechanism past international judgments to cowl titles and genuine devices drawn up overseas. Such devices could also be enforced in Morocco supplied that they have been established by competent public officers or public servants and that they qualify as enforceable titles beneath the regulation of the State of origin. Their enforcement in Morocco is topic to a previous declaration of enforceability and is conditional upon the instrument being enforceable in its State of origin and never being opposite to Moroccan public coverage.

IV. Feedback

The introduction of recent guidelines on worldwide jurisdiction and on the popularity and enforcement of international judgments is, in itself, a welcome improvement. It displays a rising consciousness among the many Moroccan authorities of the sensible significance of personal worldwide regulation and an intention to offer authorized practitioners and courts with a clearer and extra structured framework. This improvement is according to Morocco’s rising engagement on the worldwide degree, notably by the work of the Hague Convention on Non-public Worldwide Legislation (HCCH), an engagement that has lately culminated within the institution of an HCCH Regional Workplace for Africa in Morocco.

Nonetheless, from a substantive viewpoint, the newly adopted guidelines could go away a sure sense of dissatisfaction. This is because of numerous points, most of which have been already identified in a earlier publish on this weblog.

1. Worldwide jurisdiction

First, as regards the authorized framework governing worldwide jurisdiction, a studying of the adopted provisions gives the look that the legislature has remained hooked up to an outdated conception of personal worldwide regulation, and has didn’t take account of newer developments, even with respect to some elementary points. Specifically, the brand new guidelines don’t distinguish between unique and concurrent heads of jurisdiction, regardless of the sensible significance of such a distinction for the popularity and enforcement of international judgments. Nor do they introduce particular regimes for conditions requiring enhanced safety, akin to disputes involving weaker events (notably customers and workers), or present extra detailed guidelines for parallel proceedings, together with lis pendens and connexity.

Extra importantly, the brand new Code introduces numerous questionable grounds of jurisdiction. These embody, particularly, the nationality of the defendant, the place of conclusion of the contract, and the mere location of property in Morocco, regardless of its worth. Lastly, though the Code introduces a brand new rule based mostly on get together autonomy in issues of jurisdiction, it fails to offer a transparent and coherent regime governing choice-of-court agreements, particularly as regards whether or not the events could oust the jurisdiction of Moroccan courts that might in any other case be competent beneath the newly adopted guidelines.

2. Enforcement of international judgments

Whereas the brand new provisions make clear the formal necessities for the enforcement of international judgments, they fail to take ample account of current judicial observe and introduce guidelines that lack precision and are open to divergent interpretations.

As an illustration, Moroccan regulation doesn’t, as a common rule, clearly distinguish between recognition and enforcement, as international judgments are in precept topic to a previous declaration of exequatur. Nonetheless, the case regulation of the Moroccan Supreme Court docket has, to some extent, developed a realistic method that de facto permits the popularity of sure results of international judgments even within the absence of a previous exequatur declaration. Nonetheless, the brand new Code doesn’t take these developments into consideration and as an alternative adopts guidelines focusing solely on the enforcement of international judgments, thereby leaving the established order on this problem largely unchanged.

As well as, the brand new guidelines make clear the management exercised over the jurisdiction of the international courtroom by introducing a twofold examination. First, the matter determined by the international courtroom should not fall throughout the unique jurisdiction of Moroccan courts. Nonetheless, as famous above, the brand new provisions on worldwide jurisdiction fail to establish or outline the issues which are to be considered falling inside such unique jurisdiction. Secondly, the principles require that the selection of the courtroom of origin should not have been fraudulent. On this respect, it needs to be famous that an extra requirement regarding the existence of a attribute connection between the dispute and the State of the rendering courtroom had initially been envisaged. This requirement, which echoed the method adopted by the French Cour de cassation within the well-known Simitch case, was finally faraway from the ultimate model of the Code, arguably due to the sensible difficulties it could have entailed for judges in assessing the existence of such a connection.

Moreover, the model lastly adopted introduces a brand new requirement that was absent from earlier drafts and seems to have been added through the legislative course of. This issues the situation that the content material of the enforcement judgment should not contravene a global conference duly ratified by Morocco. The rationale for the introduction of this requirement isn’t solely unclear, however the provision itself is basically redundant. Certainly, Articles 454 and 456 of the brand new Code already give precedence to the applying of worldwide conventions ratified by Morocco. The supply seems additionally to be tough to use in observe, provided that the style by which this provision is formulated, notably within the Arabic model of the textual content, is awkward and makes its exact scope and operation tough to determine.

Lastly, the introduction of reciprocity as a situation for the enforcement of international judgments comes as one thing of a shock and is arguably problematic. The previous Code of Civil Process contained no reference to reciprocity, and Moroccan observe had lengthy advanced with out treating it as a related requirement. It’s true that Article 19 of the Dahir (Royal Decree) of 12 August 1913 on the civil standing of French nationals and foreigners in Morocco refers to reciprocity. Nonetheless, though that provision has by no means been formally repealed, the prevailing view amongst Moroccan students is that it’s not relevant, a place mirrored in judicial observe, as Moroccan courts don’t depend on it of their choices. Extra importantly, the inclusion of reciprocity seems at odds with the overall tendency in comparative regulation, which is both to desert this requirement or to considerably restrict its impact. Its (re?)introduction sends a adverse sign to jurisdictions the place reciprocity stays a situation for recognition and enforcement and is more likely to unnecessarily complicate each the popularity of international judgments in Morocco and, consequently, the circulation of Moroccan judgments overseas.

V. Concluding Remarks

The overall impression that emerges from a studying of the brand new guidelines is, on the entire, certainly one of disappointment. The newly adopted provisions seem like based mostly on an outdated mannequin and fail to take account of current developments, together with these noticed in neighbouring jurisdictions. The content material of numerous provisions gives the look of a step backwards in time. As an illustration, among the newly adopted guidelines, notably in issues of worldwide jurisdiction, are akin to these previously discovered, for instance, in Tunisia beneath the Code of Civil Process of 1959, which have been later repealed and changed by extra fashionable provisions now contained within the Code of Non-public Worldwide Legislation of 1998. The brand new guidelines additionally don’t absolutely replicate current Moroccan observe, whether or not on the diplomatic degree, the place Morocco has been actively engaged with the work of the HCCH – an engagement that contributed to the institution of its Regional Workplace for Africa in Morocco – or on the judicial degree, notably within the area of recognition and enforcement of international judgments. Obtainable data regarding the drafting course of counsel that these points didn’t obtain the extent of consideration they deserved, nor did they profit from ample knowledgeable session or dialogue that may have allowed the legislature to attract on each current worldwide developments and established home observe. One hope however stays: that the Code will already be topic to early reform.