Tribal Efforts to Comply with VAWA's Full Faith and Credit Requirements: A Response to Sandra Schmieder

Abstract

As part of the Violence Against Woment Act, Congress included a requirement that tribes and states give full faith and credit to each others' protection orders. Several authors, including Sandra Schmieder, have explored the contours of VAWA's full faith and credit requirements. In her comment, The Failure of the Violence Against Women Act's Full Faith and Credit Provision in Indian Country: An Argument for Amendment, Schmieder argues that VAWA's full faith and credit provisions are ineffective in Indian country, largely because tribal governments are refusing to enact the required implementing legislation. Melissa Tatum and Sarah Deer have worked in this area of law for years, and their experiences are not consistent with the premises of Schmieder's comment. Accordingly, they penned this article, published in the Tulsa Law Review, to explore the sources of their disagreement with Schmeider and explore the problems that do exist with the cross-jurisdictional enforcement of protection orders in Indian country.

Keywords: VAWA, domestic violence, protection order, full faith and credit, Indian law, Native American Law

JEL Classification: K40