William Dodge
George Washington University Law School
William S. Dodge is Lobingier Professor of Comparative Law and Jurisprudence at the George Washington University Law School. He served as Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2011 to 2012 and as Co-Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law from 2012 to 2018. He is currently a Reporter for the second phase of the Restatement (Fourth), an Adviser for the Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws, and a member of the Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Law. Professor Dodge is the co-author of Transnational Business Problems (7th ed. 2024) and Transnational Litigation in a Nutshell (2d ed. 2021). His articles on international law and transnational litigation have appeared in journals such as the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal.
Choice of Law in the American Courts in 2025
The thirty-ninth annual survey on choice of law in the American courts is now available on SSRN. The survey covers significant cases decided in 2025 on choice of law, party autonomy, extraterritoriality, international human rights, foreign sovereign immunity, adjudicative jurisdiction, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This annual survey was admirably maintained by Symeon Symeonides for…
Continue ReadingLegislative Control of Personal Jurisdiction—An Opening Door
As every first-year law student learns in Civil Procedure, the Supreme Court constitutionalized the law of personal jurisdiction in Pennoyer v. Neff (1878), holding that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment limits the jurisdiction that state courts may exercise. Legislatures still have roles to play. States enact long-arm statutes to reach non-resident defendants,…
Continue ReadingExtraterritoriality in Flux
Earlier this month, at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools, TLB Editors Maggie Gardner, Bill Dodge, and Hannah Buxbaum participated in a panel organized by the Section on Conflicts of Law entitled “Extraterritoriality in Flux.” This post summarizes their remarks. Maggie Gardner: It’s Time to Look Beyond the Presumption Against Extraterritoriality…
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