§ 1741.Construction With Other Law

Before this Act took effect, courts recognizing tribal court judgments had only the foreign-country recognition framework in Chapter 2 to work with, treating tribal judgments like judgments from another nation for lack of a better fit. Section 1741 draws the line between that old approach and the new one. Any action commenced in superior court before January 1, 2015 that raises tribal judgment recognition is still governed by Chapter 2's Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act, while this chapter takes over for actions commenced on or after that date.

The section also protects against an unintended side effect of adopting a judgment through this chapter. Entering a judgment here doesn't cut off a party's right to separately pursue enforcement of whatever part of the original tribal court judgment, order, or decree the entered California judgment didn't capture, so a partial recognition doesn't quietly waive the rest of the tribal ruling.