Page:United States Reports, Volume 1.djvu/202

Rh 

1786

SHIPPEN, Preʃident.— This is a motion, in effect, to difcharge the Defendant from execution, on the ground of his having been confined by a Ca. Sa. for the fame Debt in the State of New-Jerʃey,  and there difcharged as an infolvent Debtor, by virtue of an Act of Affembly of that State : And the queftion is,whether the difcharge of his perfon from imprifonment there, will intitle him to a like difcharge here ?

It is contended, that the decifions of even foreign Courts of Juftice, fhall have a binding force here ; and that in the fituation in which we ftand with regard to New-Jerʃey, a Sifter State, we are under an additional obligation to pay refpect to the decifions of the Courts there, by the terms of the Articles of Confederation.

The Judgment of a foreign Court eftablifhing a demand againft a Defendant, or difcharging him from it, according to the laws of that country, would certainly have a binding force here: And not only the decifions of Courts, but even the Laws of foreign countries, where no fuits have been inftituted, would in fome cafes be taken notice of here ; where fuch laws are explanatory of the contracts, and appear to have been in the contemplation of the parties at the time of making them ; as if the intereft of money fhould be higher in a foreign country where the contract was made, than in that where the fuit was brought, the foreign intereft fhall be recovered, as being underftood to be part of the contract was made, than in that where the fuit was brought, the foreign intereft fhall be recovered, as being underftood to be part of the contract. But it does not follow that every order of a foreign Court with refpect to the imprifonment of the Defendant's perfon, or any local laws of that country, with regard to his releafe from confinement, can have the effect of reftraining us from proceeding according to our own laws here. The infolvent law of New-Jerʃey relates not to the fubftance of the Plaintiff's demand, which had already been eftablifhed, but merely authorizes the Court to make an order, on certain terms, fro the difcharge of the Defendant's perfon from imprifonment ; which order has no connection with the merits of the caufe, and cannot with any property be called the judgment of the Court in that action ; and the law itfelf on which the order was founded, is a private act, made for that particular purpofe ; it is local in its nature, and local in its terms.

Infolvent laws fubfift in every State in the Union, and are probably all different from each other ; fome of them require perfonal notice to be given to the creditors, others do not, as in the prefent cafe ; and they have never been confidered as bindng out of the limits of the State that made them. Even the Bankrupt Laws of England, while we were the fubjects of that contrary, were never fuppofed to extend here, fo as to exempt the perfons of the Bankrupts from being arrefted.

The Articles of Confederation, which direct that full faith and credit fhall be given in one State to the Records, Acts, and judicial proceedings, of the others, will not admit of the conftruction contended for, otherwife executions might iffue in one State upon the