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Article
Full Faith and Credit, More or Less, to Judgments: Doubts About Thomas v. Washington Gas Light Co.
Georgetown Law Journal
  • Stewart E. Sterk, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Publication Date
1-1-1981
Abstract

Workmen's compensation awards, decrees of administrative tribunals rather than courts, present the question of how far the mandate of the full faith and credit clause should reach and whether the clause should bar a claimant from pursuing supplemental compensation in a second state. Recently, in Thomas v. Washington Gas Light Co., the Supreme Court decided that full faith and credit should not prevent a claimant from obtaining supplemental compensation. Professor Sterk criticizes the Court's analysis, demonstrating the Thomas Court's neglect of the federal interests that the clause should protect. After examining the clause and its policy underpinnings, Professor Sterk concludes that decisions of administrative tribunals should be entitled to the same full faith and credit that court judgments receive.

Publisher
Georgetown University Law Center
Keywords
  • employment law,
  • Compensation,
  • Full Faith and Credit Clause,
  • Thomas v. Washington Gas Light Co.,
  • Supreme Court
Disciplines
Citation Information
Stewart E. Sterk. "Full Faith and Credit, More or Less, to Judgments: Doubts About Thomas v. Washington Gas Light Co." Georgetown Law Journal Vol. 69 (1981) p. 1329
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/stewart_sterk/27/