Possibly. The authors of the law may have tried to memorialize the constitutional basis for Respect for Marriage Act and chose Article IV's Full Faith and Credit clause:
It was written 238 years ago. It does not explicitly mention foreign records. As I understand it, the common law doctrine of comity is typically applied by the government when considering foreign judgements and records. I could not find any mention of comity in the Respect for Marriage Act. I do not know why they did not include it, but it probably require a bit more text to cover edge cases. For most modern countries, including Columbia, this is probably pretty cut and dry. However, a blanket recognition of any foreign record might be precarious. Some countries with substandard human rights laws may allow for marriages that would be illegal in any state of the US.
I am not disagreeing with you here. Having lived in EU and US, there generally is greater regulatory alignment between European countries since so many countries are next to each other.
In my experience, it is not just the US, however. Large, isolated countries (US, Brazil, China) tend to integrate less and follow their own norms. For example, Brazil does not recognize trusts in their law at all. Living trusts are convenient because you can avoid the years and processing costs of probate - loved ones are able to pay for property tax, electricity, and groceries immediately. Brazil has no notion of trusts having any kind of entity status like a foreign corporation or person. Moreover, non-Brazilian wills are not completely enforced in Brazil. Brazil can prevent you from leaving someone out or prevent you from giving your Brazilian assets to charity as can be done in the US and UK.
Each country has a different sociopolitical history that led to following different norms. I suppose this is why it is difficult to write a law that recognizes documents from 193 countries. I guess this is why multilateral treaties and international standards are helpful for improving trade, economic, and social cooperation.
Possibly. The authors of the law may have tried to memorialize the constitutional basis for Respect for Marriage Act and chose Article IV's Full Faith and Credit clause: It was written 238 years ago. It does not explicitly mention foreign records. As I understand it, the common law doctrine of comity is typically applied by the government when considering foreign judgements and records. I could not find any mention of comity in the Respect for Marriage Act. I do not know why they did not include it, but it probably require a bit more text to cover edge cases. For most modern countries, including Columbia, this is probably pretty cut and dry. However, a blanket recognition of any foreign record might be precarious. Some countries with substandard human rights laws may allow for marriages that would be illegal in any state of the US. I am not disagreeing with you here. Having lived in EU and US, there generally is greater regulatory alignment between European countries since so many countries are next to each other. In my experience, it is not just the US, however. Large, isolated countries (US, Brazil, China) tend to integrate less and follow their own norms. For example, Brazil does not recognize trusts in their law at all. Living trusts are convenient because you can avoid the years and processing costs of probate - loved ones are able to pay for property tax, electricity, and groceries immediately. Brazil has no notion of trusts having any kind of entity status like a foreign corporation or person. Moreover, non-Brazilian wills are not completely enforced in Brazil. Brazil can prevent you from leaving someone out or prevent you from giving your Brazilian assets to charity as can be done in the US and UK. Each country has a different sociopolitical history that led to following different norms. I suppose this is why it is difficult to write a law that recognizes documents from 193 countries. I guess this is why multilateral treaties and international standards are helpful for improving trade, economic, and social cooperation.
WeekendPizzaiolo reacted to a post in a topic:
Received an RFE... Not sure where it went wrong. Any advice would be greatly appreiated.