Full faith and credit is the constitutional principle requiring states to recognize and give effect to the valid judicial proceedings and court orders of other states. In family law this means that a divorce decree from one state must be recognized by other states.

Full faith and credit is not unlimited. States are not required to enforce judgments that would violate their own public policy or that were entered without proper jurisdiction.

For child custody orders the UCCJEA supplements and in some ways limits the full faith and credit analysis by establishing specific rules about which state can modify an existing order.