§ 36A.001.Short Title

A short title naming three things the chapter is limited to.

This chapter may be cited as the Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act.

"Foreign-country" distinguishes it from the sister-state chapter, whose "foreign judgment" means out of state. Here the judgment comes from another nation.

"Money judgments" is a real limit, not a description. The chapter applies to a judgment that grants or denies recovery of a sum of money, and to nothing else — an injunction, a decree of specific performance or a declaration is outside it.

"Recognition" is the word that separates this chapter from the other one. A sister-state judgment must be honoured under the full faith and credit clause; a judgment from another country need not be, and the question here is whether Texas will recognize it.

That distinction explains everything about the chapter’s structure. The sister-state act is a filing procedure; this one is a recognition inquiry with mandatory and discretionary grounds for refusal, a burden allocation, and a limitations period.

The chapter is a uniform act, and it says what follows from that — the interpretation provision directs that consideration be given to promoting uniformity among adopting states.

The act replaced an earlier uniform act on the same subject, and the numbering shows it: chapter 36A sits beside a chapter 36, which is where the predecessor was.

Reading the title carefully answers most threshold questions: is the judgment from another country, is it for money, and is recognition what is being sought.