All posts in GENERAL LAW

Choice of Law in Complex Litigation A.   Introduction In many of the cases reproduced in earlier chapters, the choice-of-law problem involved a choice between two jurisdictions’ laws and the dispute involved a single defendant and a single plaintiff. This chapter considers a much more difficult question that currently plagues many U.S. . . . Read more

       1.   The Federal Arbitration Act and Arbitrability Arbitration clauses provide a third mechanism for influencing governing laws and dispute resolution procedures. In most cases, parties may contract to have their disputes resolved by arbitrators rather than by courts, and chosen arbitration can take multiple forms. Parties can opt for binding or . . . Read more

Choosing Legal Regimes When states adopt differing legal rules, opportunities are created for private parties to choose their preferred set of rules to govern their activities. With increasing frequency, interstate and internationally mobile parties strategically locate their assets and activities and/or place clauses into their contracts designed to help them . . . Read more

Extraterritoriality of Federal Law This chapter focuses on the extraterritorial scope of federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution. The cases below have similarities with the state law choice-of-law cases we analyzed in Chapters 2 and 3, some of which involved conflicts between state law and foreign law. We devote a . . . Read more

Conflict of Laws in the Federal System To this point, our discussion has implicitly assumed, by and large, that conflict of laws involves only problems of relations between the states that are resolved in state courts. This chapter considers how conflicts analysis might change when a conflicts issue arises in . . . Read more

(1) Does it make sense to peg ownership of movable property at the time and place of its conveyance? If the Luries had traveled to Russia to purchase the sketch, would their respective interests in the sketch be determined by Russian law? Assuming the soundness of a situs rule focused . . . Read more

(1) Why did the Robinsons pursue the question of jurisdiction over the dealership and the regional distributor all the way to the Supreme Court when they knew that the court had jurisdiction over the manufacturer and the international distribution by the latter’s acquiescence? Why wouldn’t a judgment against them have . . . Read more

Modern Approaches to Choice of Law A.   Introduction        1.   The “Choice-of-Law Revolution”: Critical Foundations In a remarkable series of essays beginning in the 1920s and eventually collected in book form in The Logical and Legal Bases of the Conflict of Laws, Professor Walter Wheeler Cook undertook an examination of the foundations of . . . Read more

Conflict of Laws: An Overview Conflict of Laws is a course about the allocation of sovereign authority. In most substantive law courses, discussions assume that a legal rule promulgated by “the State” binds its subjects. This course lifts that assumption to consider governing laws in a world where multiple states . . . Read more

The Jurisdiction of Courts over Persons and Property The right of a particular court to adjudicate a claim involves a number of different legal issues. There must be a state (or federal) long-arm statute authorizing the court to assert jurisdiction over the parties; the defendant must receive adequate notice and . . . Read more