§ 1718.Recognition Issue Raise By Filing Action; Raised By Filing Counterclaim, Cross-Claim Or Affirmative Defense

Recognition of a foreign-country judgment does not always come up the same way, and this section accommodates both common scenarios. If a party wants recognition as a stand-alone matter, unconnected to any other pending dispute, the way to raise it is by filing an action whose purpose is specifically to seek recognition of that judgment.

But recognition often arises inside litigation that is already underway for other reasons, and the section covers that situation too. When recognition comes up in a pending action, it can be raised by counterclaim, cross-claim, or affirmative defense, without requiring a separate lawsuit. Either path leads to the same substantive analysis under the rest of this chapter; this section only addresses the procedural vehicle for getting the recognition question in front of the court.