Both the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA)1 and the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA)2 are legislative responses to jurisdictional problems posed by interstate child custody disputes. Both acts govern interstate child custody disputes. A custody judgment is only enforceable if the issuing court has jurisdiction under state law and the UCCJEA and complied with the PKPA.3 Conceptually, the UCCJEA is a jurisdictional statute that seeks procedurally to implement the PKPA, which is the federal full faith and credit law for child custody determinations.
The PKPA provides for the home state to have exclusive jurisdiction and for “continuing jurisdiction” by a court that made a child custody determination consistent with its provisions.4 The UCCJEA provides for exclusive jurisdiction by the home state and exclusive “continuing jurisdiction” by the court that made an initial child custody determination consistent with the UCCJEA.5
- 1La. R.S. 13:1801, et seq.
- 228 U.S.C. § 1738A.
- 3See La. R.S. 13:1806.
- 428 U.S.C. § 1738A(c)(2)(E). Only a prior action in an emergency jurisdiction state, which was otherwise consistent with the PKPA, would prime the home state. The PKPA definition of emergency jurisdiction supersedes any state law definition of emergency jurisdiction. Jones v. Jones, 456 So. 2d 1109, 1112 (Ala. Civ. App. 1984).
- 5La. R.S. 13:1813–1814.