Matt Slovin
Matt Slovin is an Ohio municipal attorney. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in 2014 and from Harvard Law School in 2019. Before becoming a lawyer, he was a sports reporter for The (Nashville) Tennessean.
Foreign States, Personal Jurisdiction, and the FSIA
A U.S. gas company has sued four Russian defendants in the Southern District of New York for seizing helium containers that the gas company had sent to Russia pursuant to a helium supply contract. One of the defendants, RusChemAlliance (RCA), moved to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The case is unusual because the plaintiff…
Continue ReadingFinding the Right International Comity Doctrine
In Salisbury v. Costco Wholesale Corp., plaintiffs brought a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington alleging that Costco sold, as “100% agave,” tequilas that contain cheaper, non-agave alcohol. Plaintiffs based their allegations on a testing methodology known as SNIF-NMR, which identifies the plant origin of ethanol by measuring…
Continue ReadingSubstance and Procedure in Conflict of Laws
The field of conflict of laws is famously inscrutable. One of the most enigmatic doctrines in this area is the distinction between “substantive” issues and “procedural” issues. In this post, I first explain how U.S. courts distinguish between these issues for the purpose of resolving horizontal conflicts of law between sovereigns. I then explain how…
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