Throwback Thursday: Mason v. The Blaireau
Admiralty has always been a site of transnational litigation in the United States. From the earliest years of the Republic, the admiralty courts heard disputes brought by foreigners against foreigners over incidents that occurred outside the United States—cases that today might be derided as “foreign-cubed.” These “foreign-cubed” admiralty decisions are worth a fresh look because…
Continue ReadingCriminal Proceedings and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act
Congress enacted the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) to address the inconsistent application of doctrines of state immunity to civil suits against foreign states and state-owned enterprises. The statute confers jurisdictional immunity on these entities, subject to enumerated exceptions. Most litigation under the FSIA involves whether a particular defendant qualifies as a foreign…
Continue ReadingClimate Change Litigation and the “Foreign Affairs” Trump Card
Having found the federal courts unfriendly to climate-related claims, a series of plaintiffs—mostly state and municipal governments—have sued fossil fuel companies under state law often in state court. Oil company defendants resisting these claims have argued that federal law, not state law, should govern. For cases filed in state court, defendants also have sought to remove the cases to federal court, asserting federal jurisdiction on various theories.
Continue ReadingRecent Scholarship on Antisuit Injunctions
Giuseppe Colangelo and Valerio Torti have posted an interesting paper on antisuit injunctions in patent litigation. The paper helpfully surveys recent clusters of litigation in China, Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States and elsewhere. Especially notable is the growth both in antisuit injunctions against Chinese companies and in antisuit injunctions issued by Chinese courts…
Continue ReadingCan Defendants Be Sued at Home? Forum Non Conveniens, Expendable Lives, and the Legacy of Gore v. U.S. Steel Corp.
Many were shocked last month when court documents revealed that Johnson & Johnson tested the safety of its talc powder in the 1960s by injecting asbestos into mostly Black inmates at Philadelphia’s Holmesburg prison. The use of Holmesburg inmates for medical studies was already well-documented, echoing the U.S. Government’s syphilis studies in hundreds of Black…
Continue ReadingCert Petition Challenges Second Circuit’s Comity Abstention Doctrine
A cert petition filed with the Supreme Court on March 21, 2022 challenges the doctrine of prescriptive comity abstention. The Second Circuit used this doctrine to reverse a $147 million antitrust judgment against Chinese companies for fixing the price of vitamin C sold into the United States. The Second Circuit’s decision relies on the kind…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: Choice-of-Law Clauses Through the Lens of Contract
The academic literature on choice-of-law clauses may be usefully sorted into three boxes. Articles in the first box seek to ascertain when, exactly, the courts will enforce these clauses. This body of literature looks to case decisions, treatises, statutes, and works such as the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws in an attempt to determine…
Continue ReadingLitigating a Russian Bond Default
The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the sanctions imposed in response by the United States and other governments, have fueled expectations of a Russian sovereign debt default. Despite the Russian government’s recent coupon payments on two dollar bonds and apparent desire to avoid default, prices remain in deeply distressed territory. As often happens in such…
Continue ReadingD.C. Circuit Addresses FSIA in Hungarian Art Case
Last month, the D.C. Circuit addressed several important questions under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in its latest decision in De Csepel v. Republic of Hungary, a long-running suit to recover art expropriated during the Second World War. The court held that the defendant Hungarian National Asset Management Inc. (MNV) was subject to jurisdiction…
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