New Scholarship on the Argentinian Sovereign Debt Litigation
For more than a decade in the early 00s, Argentina’s $100 billion sovereign debt default dominated the transnational litigation news headlines – and, indeed, global financial news. Hundreds of cases were filed against Argentina in U.S. courts with long-term implications for foreign sovereign immunity and foreign direct investment. Many of those cases were consolidated before…
Continue ReadingColorado Court Holds That Forum Non Conveniens Dismissal Is Not Preclusive
When a court in the United States grants a motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens, finding that a plaintiff’s claims should be litigated abroad, may the plaintiff instead choose to refile its claims in another U.S. jurisdiction? The answer will often be yes because the forum non conveniens dismissal does not have issue preclusive…
Continue ReadingForum Selection Clause Roundup
Forum selection clauses play a critical role in much transnational litigation. Over the past several months, TLB has published six posts on forum selection clauses. In this post, I try to bring these writings together to show how they all form a coherent narrative. This post is not meant to serve as a substitute for…
Continue ReadingFair Use, the First Amendment, and the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments
A court in the United States is not required to enforce a foreign money judgment when that judgment is “repugnant to the public policy of . . . the United States.” The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the classic example of U.S. public policy on freedom of speech and freedom of the press….
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Round-Up, OT 2021
Transnational litigation has been a persistent, if small, part of the Supreme Court’s docket in the Roberts Court. With the Supreme Court now on its summer break, here is a summary of TLB’s coverage of October Term 2021 cases, which included important decisions on choice of law and federalism and on discovery for use in…
Continue ReadingEnforcing Chinese Judgments
It has become routine for courts in the United States to recognize and enforce Chinese judgments, subject to the same limits that are applied to judgments from other countries. Last year, a New York court threatened to upset this positive trend. Relying on U.S. State Department Country Reports noting corruption and lack of judicial independence…
Continue ReadingNo Immunity for Diplomats Who Hold Domestic Workers in Conditions of Modern Slavery
The U.K. Supreme Court issued an important decision last week in Basfar v. Wong. The Court held that a diplomat who allegedly kept a domestic employee in conditions of modern slavery was not immune from suit because the alleged conduct brought the suit within the commercial activity exception to immunity under the Vienna Convention on…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: American Banana and the Presumption Against Extraterritoriality
Today, it is “well established” that U.S. antitrust law applies extraterritorially to foreign conduct that causes substantial effects in the United States, but this was not always true. When the Supreme Court first addressed the geographic scope of the Sherman Act in 1909, it held that the act applied only to conduct in the United…
Continue ReadingWhen the U.S. Sues Foreign Manufacturers
What if Robert Nicastro had been the U.S. Government? After J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro, U.S. citizens harmed by products manufactured by foreign companies may not be able to sue in U.S. courts for lack of personal jurisdiction. In United States v. Aquatherm GmBH, a foreign manufacturer had similarly structured its sales into the…
Continue ReadingWho Owns the Ferrari F50?
The Ferrari F50 is, by all accounts, a pretty amazing car. One website describes it as the “ultimate showcase of the infamous Italian marque” and “one of the most sought-after driving machines in the world.” Only 349 were ever made. Just last year, a Ferrari F50 sold at auction for roughly $3.8 million. All of…
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