The Supreme Court Takes Up Sovereign Immunity from Criminal Prosecutions
On the first day of the October 2022 Term, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Türkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States. The case, put simply, asks whether the U.S. government can bring criminal prosecutions against foreign companies owned by foreign sovereigns. The United States has charged Halkbank, in which Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund has…
Continue ReadingTerritoriality v. Extraterritoriality in Intellectual Property
A core principle in U.S. intellectual property (IP) law is that IP rights are territorially limited. A U.S. patent, copyright, trademark, or trade secret affords the holder exclusive rights solely within the United States. This principle also exists at the international level, as reflected in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS)….
Continue Reading“Catching and Killing” Suits Against Boeing
A recent decision by the Northern District of Illinois (Judge Franklin Valderrama) exemplifies the phenomenon that TLB advisor Zach Clopton has termed catch and kill jurisdiction: when federal courts stretch to take cases from state courts only to dismiss them on procedural grounds that the state courts would not have applied. In Wragge v. Boeing,…
Continue ReadingA Deeply Flawed Personal Jurisdiction Decision in the SDNY
When dealing with forum selection clauses, one of the most important—if unappreciated—distinctions is between inbound and outbound clauses. An inbound clause selects the court where the suit was filed. An outbound clause selects a court that that is not the forum. Another important distinction is the one between exclusive clauses, which stipulate that suit must…
Continue ReadingDistrict Court Dismisses Mexico’s Suit Against U.S. Gunmakers
Last week, the federal district court for the District of Massachusetts (Chief Judge Dennis Saylor) dismissed a complaint brought by Mexico against seven U.S. gun manufacturers and one distributor. According to the complaint, the defendants design, market, and sell guns in ways they know will arm Mexican drug cartels. Mexico has strict gun laws, but an…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Grants Review in Three Transnational Litigation Cases
Today, the Supreme Court granted review in three transnational litigation cases and denied review in three others. Emma White has discussed each of the cases in greater detail. In Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, the Court will consider whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act applies to criminal proceedings. Chimène Keitner has previously analyzed…
Continue ReadingNow or Then? The Temporal Aspects of Choice-of-Law Clauses
Several years ago, I published a paper that examined how U.S. courts interpret choice-of-law clauses. That paper contains a detailed discussion of the most common interpretive issues—whether the clause selects the tort laws of the chosen jurisdiction in addition to its contract laws, for example—that arise in litigation. There was, however, one important omission. The…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: Equustek v. Google
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Equustek v. Google, in which Canada’s highest court became one among a select few to order an internet intermediary to remove information from its services on a worldwide basis. The decision in Equustek aroused angst and controversy out of fear…
Continue ReadingMBS’s Appointment as Saudi Prime Minister Gives Him Head-of-State Immunity
On Tuesday, King Salman appointed Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) as Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. The appointment makes MBS Saudi Arabia’s head of government, thereby entitling him to “head of state” immunity under U.S. law and customary international law. The appointment comes just days before an October 3 court deadline for the U.S….
Continue ReadingThe U.S. Supreme Court, October Term 2022
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court holds its first conference of the October 2022 Term. The term will officially open next week on the first Monday of October. To help readers keep track of petitions and cases raising interesting questions about transnational litigation, we are pleased to announce our new Supreme Court page. At today’s conference,…
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