Posts

Throwback Thursday: The Ottoman Empire, the Capitulations, and War

Yes, the “capitulations” are often the stuff of very old books, the kind of books frequently discarded, the ones that you see heaped up sadly on the sidewalk in the rain next to libraries making space for people to surf the internet.  Books, that is, like Nasim Sousa’s, The Capitulatory Regime of Turkey: Its History,…

Continue Reading

Havlish Plaintiffs File a Potentially Misleading Brief Claiming Entitlement to Afghan Central Bank Assets

The 2021 return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan has led to litigation in the United States over the assets of the Afghan Central Bank (“DAB”).  As I explained in an earlier post, an executive order by President Biden froze about $7.0 billion in DAB assets held in New York. A license from the…

Continue Reading

A Theory-Less Restatement for Conflict of Laws

For the first time in over half a century, the American Law Institute (“ALI”) is drafting a new Restatement of Conflict of Laws. The world has changed a great deal since 1971 when the Restatement (Second) was published, growing far more interconnected—so the idea of a new Restatement, taking into account the last few decades…

Continue Reading

Substituted Service and the Hague Service Convention

Can state law be used to avoid a federal treaty, even though the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution makes treaties supreme over state law? The somewhat surprising answer is yes—at least when it comes to the Hague Service Convention and state rules on substituted service. The Hague Service Convention governs transnational service of process…

Continue Reading

The Comparative Value of Choice of Law and Forum Selection Clauses

Choice-of-law clauses and forum selection clauses routinely come before courts hearing transnational cases. A choice-of-law clause selects a law to govern the contract. A forum selection clause chooses a court in which to resolve disputes. These differences notwithstanding, the two clauses are often discussed in the same breath. Leading casebooks on conflict of laws examine…

Continue Reading

The Role of the FCPA in Transnational Litigation

Professor Maggie Gardner’s thought-provoking post on the role of the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in forum non conveniens analysis in IMSS v. Stryker and IMSS v. Zimmer Biomet Holdings led me to consider how the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) factors into these cases. Interestingly, both defendant corporations, Stryker Corporation and Zimmer Biomet Holdings,…

Continue Reading

Second Circuit Rejects Act of State Doctrine in Antitrust Case

In a recent decision, Celestin v. Caribbean Air Mail, Inc., the Second Circuit held that the act of state doctrine does not bar U.S. antitrust claims based on the acts of a foreign government. Although the Second Circuit is right, its decision diverges from the decisions of other circuits that have applied the doctrine as…

Continue Reading

CVSG in Usoyan v. Turkey: Can Turkey Use Force in the United States to Protect Its President?

A violent clash in Washington, D.C. between Turkish security forces and protestors has led to civil litigation with interesting questions about the authority of foreign security details and the immunity to which foreign governments are entitled. Turkey has petitioned for certiorari, and the Supreme Court has shown an interest in the case by calling for…

Continue Reading

New Bill Would Amend the Alien Tort Statute to Apply Extraterritorially

Last week, Senators Dick Durbin and Sherrod Brown introduced a new bill, the Alien Tort Statute Clarification Act (ATSCA), that would amend the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) to apply extraterritorially. Since 1980, plaintiffs have relied on the ATS to bring international human rights claims in federal court against individuals and corporations. But since 2013, the…

Continue Reading

Multistate Defamation, Cross-Border Torts, and Choice of Law

Multistate defamation cases have always presented difficult choice-of-law problems, but the advent of the internet has exacerbated them. Nunes v. Cable News Network, Inc is a good example on point, besides being a very interesting case on other grounds. This post presents this case, but also examines how other countries resolve conflicts in cases of…

Continue Reading

Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School
ingrid.wuerth@vanderbilt.eduEmail

William Dodge

George Washington University Law School
william.dodge@law.gwu.eduEmail

Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law School
mgardner@cornell.eduEmail

John F. Coyle

University of North Carolina School of Law
jfcoyle@email.unc.eduEmail

Zachary D. Clopton

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
zclopton@law.northwestern.eduEmail

Noah Buyon

Duke University School of Law
Bio | Posts

Naman Karl-Thomas Habtom

University of Cambridge
Bio | Posts

Ben Köhler

Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
Bio | Posts

Melissa Stewart

University of Hawai'i, William S. Richardson School of Law.
Bio | Posts

Ian M. Kysel

Cornell Law School
Bio | Posts

Craig D. Gaver

Bluestone Law
Bio | Posts

Gregg Cashmark

Vanderbilt Law School
Bio | Posts

Rochelle C. Dreyfuss

NYU School of Law
Bio | Posts

Linda J. Silberman

New York University School of Law
Bio | Posts

Timothy R. Holbrook

Emory University School of Law
Bio | Posts