§4102 Recognition of Foreign Defamation Judgments

Summary

A U.S. court must not accept or enforce a foreign defamation judgment unless it finds one of two things. Either the foreign court used defamation rules that give at least as much free-speech protection as the U.S. First Amendment and the law of the state where the U.S. court sits, or even if the foreign rules gave less protection, a U.S. court applying the First Amendment and that state’s law would still have found the person liable. The person asking the U.S. court to enforce the foreign judgment must prove one of those things. A U.S. court also must find that the foreign court had proper jurisdiction under U.S. due-process rules, and the enforcing party must prove that. If the judgment targets an “interactive computer service” (see section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230)), the U.S. court must find it would agree with section 230 if the content had been in the United States, and the enforcing party must prove that. Going to court in the foreign country does not stop someone from later opposing enforcement or from raising jurisdiction objections. This rule does not change how non-defamation foreign judgments are handled, and it does not limit section 230’s application to defamation claims.