which the
judgment involved was offered as a basis of proceedings for its own
enforcement outside the State where rendered, as for example, when an
action for debt is brought in the courts of State B on a judgment for
money damages rendered in State A; secondly, those in which the judgment
involved was offered, in conformance with the principle of _res
judicata_, in defense in a new or "collateral" proceeding growing out of
the same facts as the original suit, as for example, when a decree of
divorce granted in State A is offered as barring a suit for divorce by
the other party to the marriage in the courts of State B.

EFFECT TO BE GIVEN IN FORUM STATE

The English courts and the different State courts in the United States,
while recognizing "foreign judgments _in personam_" which were reducible
to money terms as affording a basis for actions in debt, originally
accorded them generally only the status of _prima facie_ evidence in
support thereof, so that the merits of the original controversy could
always be opened. When offered in defense, on the other hand, "foreign
judgments _in personam_" were ordinarily treated as conclusive, as
between parties, of the issues they purported to determine, provided
they had been rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction and were not
tainted with fraud. And judgments "_in rem_" rendered under the same
conditions were regarded as conclusive upon everybody on the theory
that, as stated by Chief Justice Marshall, "it is a proceeding _in rem_,
to which all the world are parties."[3]

The pioneer case was Mills _v._ Duryee,[4] decided in 1813. In an action
brought in the circuit court of the District of Columbia--the equivalent
of a State court for this purpose--on a judgment from a New York court,
the defendant endeavored to reopen the whole question of the merits of
the original case by a plea of "_nil debet_." It was answered in the
words of the act of 1790 itself, that such records and proceedings were
entitled in each State to the same faith and credit as in the State of
origin; and that inasmuch as they were records of a court in the State
of origin, and so conclusive of the merits of the case there, they were
equally so in the forum State. The Court adopted the latter view, saying
that it had not been the intention of the Constitution merely to reenact
the common law--that is, the principles of private international law--as
to the reception of foreign judgments, but to ampl