The Court held that under s 7(2)(a)(ii) of the Foreign Judgments Act 1991 (Cth), 'the amount payable under' a foreign judgment means the total sum finally determined by the foreign court, not merely the amount presently due at the date of registration; accordingly, a judgment registered for its full amount is not registerable for an amount 'greater than the amount payable' merely because the foreign court ordered payment by instalments with a future due date. The Court further held that the public policy ground under s 7(2)(a)(xi) was not engaged by the fact that the judgment debtor's compliance with the registered judgment would allegedly require it to contravene the laws of its home jurisdiction (Vietnam), nor by the fact that Vietnamese courts had refused to register the same English judgment; these were matters personal to the judgment debtor's corporate structure and not violations of any fundamental Australian moral, social or economic principle. The Court also noted that even if the first ground succeeded, s 9(1) would permit immediate re-registration for the full amount once all instalments had fallen due, underscoring the limited utility of the argument.
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