International Custody Jurisdiction, Human Rights, and Legislative Change
The Court of Appeals of Washington State recently issued an unpublished opinion that will serve as a benchmark for parents who flee certain countries with their children, seeking safe harbor in the United States (In re AlHaidari (Fearing, CJ)). In re AlHaidari Bethany AlHaidari, a U.S. citizen, married Ghassan AlHaidari, a Saudi citizen, in Saudi…
Continue ReadingParsing Invalidating Statutes (Part II)
In a prior post, I argued that the precise language used in state statutes purporting to invalidate choice-of-law clauses and forum selection clauses can have outsized effects in litigation. In this post, I continue this discussion by highlighting several statutes that purport to invalidate choice-of-law clauses in insurance contracts. Although these statutes all have the…
Continue ReadingParsing Invalidating Statutes (Part I)
In previous posts, I have written about how the precise language used in a choice-of-law or forum selection clause can prove consequential in litigation. In this post, I argue that the precise language used in state statutes purporting to invalidate these clauses can likewise have an outsized effect. There are hundreds of state statutes that…
Continue ReadingHappy Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, so TLB is taking a break. We are thankful for you, our readers, around the world. If you celebrate the holiday, we wish you happiness with your family and friends. If you do not celebrate the holiday, we wish you the same. We will be back with…
Continue ReadingHow to Criticize U.S. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (Part II)
[This post is based on a lecture delivered at Wuhan University School of Law on October 15, 2023] There are better and worse ways to criticize U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction. In yesterday’s post, I discussed some shortcomings of a February 2023 report by China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “The U.S. Willful Practice of Long-arm Jurisdiction and…
Continue ReadingHow to Criticize U.S. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (Part I)
[This post is based on a lecture delivered at Wuhan University School of Law on October 15, 2023] China has been critical of U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction. In February, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a report entitled “The U.S. Willful Practice of Long-arm Jurisdiction and its Perils.” In the report, the Ministry complained about U.S….
Continue ReadingEvergreen Content at TLB
In addition to covering new developments in transnational litigation, TLB aims to provide evergreen content that can serve as resources for practitioners, students, and academics. Our topic pages include primers on recurrent issues in transnational litigation; collections of core primary legal sources and leading academic articles; and related TLB news coverage. We are excited to…
Continue ReadingFinancial Hardship and Forum Selection Clauses
The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that a forum selection clause should not be enforced when “trial in the contractual forum will be so gravely difficult and inconvenient” that the plaintiff “will for all practical purposes be deprived of his day in court.” The financial status of the plaintiff is obviously a factor that…
Continue ReadingEighth Circuit Weighing Adoption of Foreign Relations Abstention
The Eighth Circuit will soon hear an interlocutory appeal to consider permitting abstention based on foreign relations concerns. In Reid v. Doe Run Resources Corp. (as the case is captioned on appeal), Peruvian citizens allege they were seriously harmed as children by toxic substances emitted by a metallurgical refining complex in Peru and that this…
Continue ReadingNew Decision on Email Service Under the Hague Service Convention
Regular TLB readers may recall that federal district courts are struggling with an important procedural question: whether they may authorize email service when the defendant resides in a country that is party to the Hague Service Convention. In Smart Study Co. v. Acuteye-U.S., Judge Gregory H. Woods (SDNY) held that the answer is no. The…
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