Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments: Analysis and Proposed Federal Statute: Adopted and Promulgated by the American Law Institute at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 17, 2005
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Description
This American Law Institute project began with the encouragement of the United States Department of State when the Hague Conference on Private International Law was considering an international convention on Jurisdiction and Judgments. Because recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments has traditionally been treated as a matter of state law, United States implementation of a Hague Convention on the subject would require federal legislation. The Institute invited Professors Andreas Lowenfeld and Linda Silberman of New York University School of Law to draft such legislation with supporting discussion and explanation. When progress toward a convention slowed at The Hague, the Reporters and most of their Advisers decided that the United States would benefit from a federal statute whether or not there was a convention to implement and that the ALI should draft and recommend such a statute. As the Reporters continued and expanded their work, the project was retitled Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgment: Analysis and Proposed Federal Statute. The completed work, here published, contains valuable scholarship and comprehensive review of current law. It also contains discussion of the constitutional basis for federal legislation on the subject of foreign judgments. The most controversial issue in this effort has been whether to require reciprocity from countries whose judgments come before an American court for enforcement. The Reporters have done imaginative and sophisticated work to draft and explain the reciprocity requirement that this volume recommends. The membership of the Institute was divided on whether a federal statute concerning foreign judgments should contain a reciprocity requirement, but a substantial vote in two successive Annual Meeting favored reciprocity, subject to the burden of proof being on the party resisting recognition or enforcement on the basis of lack of reciprocity. The Institute believe that this project will have influence whether or not the recommended statute is enacted by helping the legal community to understand these challenging issues. The Reporters, leading scholars of both civil procedure and international law, have made a major contribution to the Institute and to legal scholarship. We thank them, the distinguished group of Advisers who assisted them, and the many ALI members who have participated in our lively discussions of this subject.
Publication Date
2006
Recommended Citation
Lowenfeld, Andreas F. and Silberman, Linda J., "Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments: Analysis and Proposed Federal Statute: Adopted and Promulgated by the American Law Institute at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 17, 2005" (2006). Faculty Books & Edited Works. 677.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-books-edited-works/677
