STATE'S RELATIONS
Article IV
Section 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
Sources and Effect of This Provision
PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW
The historical background of the above section is furnished by that branch of private law which is variously termed "Private International Law," "Conflict of Laws," "Comity." This comprises a body of rules, based largely on the writings of jurists and judicial decisions, in accordance with which the courts of one country or "jurisdiction" will ordinarily, in the absence of a local policy to the contrary, extend recognition and enforcement to rights claimed by individuals by virtue of the laws or judicial decisions of another country or "jurisdiction." Most frequently applied examples of these rules include the following: the rule that a marriage which is good in the country where performed (lex loci) is good elsewhere; likewise the rule that contracts are to be interpreted in accordance with the laws of the country where entered into (lex loci contractus) unless the parties clearly intended otherwise; also the rule that immovables may be disposed of only in accordance with the law of the country where situated (lex rei sitae);[1] also the converse rule that chattels adhere to the person of their owner and hence are disposable by him, even when located elsewhere, in accordance with the law of his domicile (lex domicilii); also the rule that regardless of where the cause arose, the courts of any country where personal service can be got upon the defendant will take jurisdiction of certain types of personal actions, hence termed "transitory," and accord such remedy as the lex fori affords. Still other rules, of first importance in the present connection, determine the recognition which the judgments of the courts of one country shall receive from those of another country.
IMPORTANCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION
So even had the States of the Union remained in a mutual relationship of entire independence, still private claims originating in one would often have been assured recognition and enforcement in the others. The framers of the Constitution felt, however, that the rules of private international law should not be left as among the States altogether on a basis of comity, and hence subject always to the overruling local policy of the lex fori, but ought to be in some measure at least placed on the higher plane of constitutional obligation. In fulfillment of this intent the section now under consideration was inserted, and Congress was empowered to enact supplementary and enforcing legislation.
THE ACTS OF 1790 AND 1804
Congressional legislation under the full faith and credit clause, so far as it is pertinent to adjudication thereunder, is today embraced in section 687 of Title 28 of the United States Code, which consolidates the acts of May 26, 1790 and of March 27, 1804.[2] "The acts of the legislature of any State or Territory, or of any country subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, shall be authenticated by having the seals of such State, Territory, or country affixed thereto. The records and judicial proceedings of the courts of any State or Territory, or of any such country, shall be proved or admitted in any other court within the United States, by the attestation of the clerk, and the seal of the court annexed, if there be a seal, together with a certificate of the judge, chief justice, or presiding magistrate, that the said attestation is in due form. And the said records and judicial proceedings, so authenticated, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States as they have by law or usage in the courts of the State from which they are taken."