Law Commons^™

The Continuing Evolution Of U.S. Judgments Recognition Law, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

The substantive law of judgments recognition in the United States has evolved from federal common law, found in a seminal Supreme Court opinion, to primary reliance on state law in both state and federal courts. While state law often is found in a local version of a uniform act, this has not brought about true uniformity, and significant discrepancies exist among the states. These discrepancies in judgments recognition law, combined with a common policy on the circulation of internal judgments under the United States Constitution’s Full Faith and Credit Clause, have created opportunities for forum shopping and litigation strategies that …

Ending Judgment Arbitrage: Jurisdictional Competition And The Enforcement Of Foreign Money Judgments In The United States, Gregory Shill

Gregory Shill

Recent multi-billion-dollar damage awards issued by foreign courts against large American companies have focused attention on the once-obscure, patchwork system of enforcing foreign-country judgments in the United States. That system’s structural problems are even more serious than its critics have charged. However, the leading proposals for reform overlook the positive potential embedded in its design.

In the United States, no treaty or federal law controls the domestication of foreign judgments; the process is instead governed by state law. Although they are often conflated in practice, the procedure consists of two formally and conceptually distinct stages: foreign judgments must first be …

Full Faith And Credit In The Early Congress, Stephen E. Sachs

Stephen E. Sachs

After more than 200 years, the Full Faith and Credit Clause remains poorly understood. The Clause first issues a self-executing command (that "Full Faith and Credit shall be given"), and then empowers Congress to prescribe the manner of proof and the "Effect" of state records in other states. But if states must accord each other full faith and credit-and if nothing could be more than full-then what "Effect" could Congress give state records that they wouldn't have already? And conversely, how could Congress in any way reduce or alter the faith and credit that is due? This Article seeks to …

Are You Still My Mother?: Interstate Recognition Of Adoptions By Gays And Lesbians, Rhonda Wasserman

Articles

Parents and their biological children routinely cross state borders safe in the assumption that the parent-child relationship will be recognized wherever they go. The central issue raised in this Article is whether the law guarantees parents and their adopted children the same security if the parents are gay. This question is part of a broader debate about the obligation of states to recognize changes in family status effected under the laws of other states, such as same-sex marriages and migratory divorces. The debate is divisive because it pits the family against the state; one state against another; and the needs …

Conflict Of Laws: Refusal To Grant Full Faith And Credit To A Foreign Judgment For Lack Of Jurisdiction - Aldrich V. Aldrich, John Henry Lewin Jr.

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Death Damages And Conflicts Of Laws, Marvin D. Silver

Cleveland State Law Review

Since the adoption of the Fatal Accidents Act of 1846 in the United Kingdom, each of the fifty United States has created by statute a similar right of action which pertains to the survivors or to the estate of the decedent whose death resulted from the wrongful acts of another. During recent years, fourteen states have incorporated within their wrongful death statutes a maximum limitation on the amount of damages recoverable. These restrictions consistently trouble the courts when a wrongful death occurs in one of these limiting states and the suit is brought elsewhere. However, the courts have, with a …

Abstracts Of Recent Cases, L. S. D.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conflict Of Laws - Due Process And Full Faith And Credit - Direct Action Statute, Harvey A. Howard S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant issued a liability insurance policy to the manufacturer of a hair-waving product, an Illinois subsidiary of a Delaware corporation having its headquarters in Massachusetts. The policy, issued in Massachusetts and delivered in Massachusetts and Illinois, was to protect the insured against damages that might be suffered by users of the product anywhere in the United States or Canada. It contained a "no action" clause enforceable under Massachusetts and Illinois law prohibiting direct actions against the insurer until final determination of the insured's liability, either by judgment or agreement. Alleging injuries sustained in Louisiana where the product was bought and …

Conflict Of Laws - Full Faith And Credit - Foreign Custody Decrees, Theodore J. St. Antoine S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Husband and wife were domiciled in Wisconsin. When marital troubles developed, the parties agreed that the wife should. take their children to Ohio and. there decide on her future action. Shortly afterward the wife informed the husband. she was not returning. The husband secured. a divorce in Wisconsin, with the decree purporting to award. him custody of the children subject to visitation rights in the wife. Service on the wife was · obtained by publication, but she made no appearance in the Wisconsin proceedings. After one of the visits of the children, the wife refused. to return them and. the …

Interstate Recognition Of Custody Decrees: Law And Reason V. The Restatement, Albert A. Ehrenzweig

Michigan Law Review

After days of bitter contest, a weary judge dissolves the marriage bond and, lacking Solomon's sword, allots the child to his mother. Thus the stage is set for the second act of the tragedy. Craving a new life for herself and her child, the mother moves to another state, and the father, seeing his right of visitation thus put in jeopardy, pleads the mother's removal in the original court which, loyal to the more faithful citizen, now awards custody to him. Should a judge of the mother's new home state heed this change? And again, what should be done if …

Conflict Of Laws-Constitutional Law-Full Faith And Credit-Fraternal Benefit Society's Constitution Controlling Over Statute Of Limitations Of Forum State, Bruce L. Moore S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In an action against an Ohio fraternal benefit society to recover insurance benefits resulting from the death of an insured member, the defense was that the constitution of the society prohibited the bringing of an action on such a claim more than six months after disallowance of the claim. This provision was valid under the statutes and court decisions of Ohio. The statute of limitations of the state of the forum, South Dakota, was six years on contract actions. Another statute of South Dakota declared void every stipulation in a contract limiting the time within which a party may enforce …

The Supreme Court And The Conflict Of Laws, Fowler V. Harper

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.