Recognition of Foreign Administrative Acts

The nature of the legal regime governing recognition in the United States of foreign administrative acts (administrative decisions with respect to specific individuals) varies sharply depending on whether the foreign administrative acts in question are covered by some form of international agreement requiring recognition. The most prevalent form of such agreement is the mutual recognition agreement (MRA). MRAs are bilateral and multilateral treaties that may, among other functions, commit each member nation to give effect to the assessment by the other partner nations or by private bodies authorized to make such assessments concerning the conformity with various product standards or health and safety, consumer or environmental standards for goods and services imported from those partner nations. The point is to reduce duplicative conformity assessments in international trade and international transportation. Some of these kinds of assessments constitute administrative acts in civil law countries, so MRAs in effect may require, as a matter of public international law, the recognition of foreign administrative acts involved in conformity assessment and certification. The United States has entered into numerous MRAs, and generally implements its obligations under these agreements through statutes and regulations. When there is an applicable MRA, there may therefore be a clear basis both in international law and domestic law requiring recognition. In the absence of such an international agreement and implementing legislation, recognition depends on the common law, which also provides a basis for recognition, in this case to avoid duplicative litigation. The common law rule of recognition is subject to some uncertainty but it imposes a general test of whether there was a full and fair opportunity to litigate. Where the act of state doctrine applies, it expands the range of administrative acts that will be recognized by eliminating the defense of public policy. The net effect of the common law of recognition is to enforce foreign administrative acts that impose an obligation to pay money, but not if the obligation to pay is a fine or penalty, and to give preclusive effect to the findings of fact underlying a foreign administrative act under the doctrine of collateral estoppel, but only if the factual issue in the United States is identical to the issue in the foreign country, a condition that appears to be fairly rare, even in the case of determinations of citizenship or family status

Business · Commit · Conformity · Conformity assessment · Economics · International law · International trade · Law and economics · Legislation · MRAS · Mutual recognition · Political science · Statute · Computer Science · Engineering · International Arbitration and Investment Law · International Law and Aviation · Law · Law, logistics, and international trade

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