John Coyle
University of North Carolina School of Law
John F. Coyle is the Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. He is a past chair of the AALS Section on Conflict of Laws and is currently an Adviser for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws. His articles on choice-of-law clauses, forum selection clauses, cross-border dispute resolution, and international commercial contracts have appeared in journals such as the Notre Dame Law Review, the William & Mary Law Review, the North Carolina Law Review, and the Iowa Law Review. Before entering the academy, he worked as a transactional attorney at Covington & Burling LLP.
A Costly Drafting Mistake
When I teach Conflict of Laws, I spend a lot of time showing my class how to draft a good choice-of-law clause. It’s not hard. Everything you need to know is laid out in the Primer on Choice-of-Law Clauses. Unfortunately, these instructions are not always followed. In one recent case, Pool Scouts Franchising LLC v….
Continue ReadingMicrosoft Contract Day 2025!
Two years ago today, I authored a post titled “Microsoft’s Dispute Resolution Provisions Are a Mess.” I argued that the “Jurisdiction and Governing Law” language in the form purchase order used by Microsoft and its subsidiaries in 109 countries around the world was “incoherent.” My goal in writing the post was to inspire/shame Microsoft –…
Continue ReadingWho Has the Authority to Waive Sovereign Immunity Via Contract?
In a prior post, Ingrid Brunk and I wrote about the ways that foreign nations can waive their sovereign immunity via various types of contractual provisions. There are, however, additional requirements that must be satisfied for a contractual waiver of sovereign immunity to be valid. Among other things, a party seeking to enforce such a…
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