John F. Coyle

The Personal Jurisdiction Case With Everything

In one of my favorite moves, The Princess Bride, the grandfather describes the story as having everything: “Fencing! Fighting! Revenge! Giants! Chases! Escapes! True love! Miracles!” This scene popped into my head when I was reading a recent decision by the Court of Appeals of Texas (Fourteenth District). That opinion, Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London…

Continue Reading

The Many Uses of the Forum Selection Clause

The forum selection clause is the Swiss Army Knife of transnational litigation. Among other things, it may be invoked to: obtain personal jurisdiction over a defendant who otherwise lacks any connection to the chosen jurisdiction; dismiss a case filed in a jurisdiction other than the one named in the clause; defeat an attempt to enforce…

Continue Reading

Demystifying Borrowing Statutes

A borrowing statute is a law directing the courts in one jurisdiction to “borrow” the shorter statute of limitations of another jurisdiction. Borrowing statutes are common in the United States—thirty-six states have enacted them—but they are largely unknown in the rest of the world. In this post, I seek to demystify borrowing statutes for the…

Continue Reading

Forum Selection Clauses in California

In 2024, more than 1.2 million civil lawsuits were filed in California. While most of these suits were between U.S. residents, some of them grew out of international contracts. Some of these international contracts, in turn, contained forum selection clauses choosing the courts of a foreign country. In this post, I take a close look…

Continue Reading

Is It Too Dangerous To Litigate In Israel?

Many international contracts contain forum selection clauses stating that litigation must occur in the courts of a particular country. While these clauses provide a welcome measure of certainty as to where future disputes will be resolved, they are sometimes viewed as inconvenient by plaintiffs who would prefer to sue in the United States. In an…

Continue Reading

The Most-Viewed Posts of 2025 (So Far)

As we approach the third anniversary of Transnational Litigation Blog—the site officially launched on March 28, 2022—I thought it would be interesting to take a look at which posts have attracted the most views in the first few months of 2025. A list of the top ten appears below. Views 1 A Primer on Choice-of-Law…

Continue Reading

Choice of Law in Terrorism Cases in the District of Columbia

When an Iranian-backed terrorist group operating out of Lebanon detonates a bomb in Israel that kills a U.S. citizen domiciled in Texas, what law governs civil claims brought against Iran in the District of Columbia (DDC)? Some version of this choice-of-law question has been presented to the DDC many times over the past two decades….

Continue Reading

North Carolina Court Recognizes Ghanaian Proxy Marriage

A marriage celebrated outside the United States will generally be recognized by a court within the United States if two requirements are met. First, the couple must have satisfied all of the legal requirements of the place of celebration.  Second, the marriage cannot be contrary to the public policy of the recognizing state. The North…

Continue Reading

A Plea for Private International Law

In early January 2025, I published a post titled “Teaching Conflict of Laws at U.S. Law Schools.” The post surveyed the course offerings of the top 50 U.S. law schools to see whether Conflict of Laws had been offered during the previous two academic years. Shortly after it went live, I received the following email from…

Continue Reading

Dangerous Foreign Courts

U.S. courts have long recognized that certain civil cases should not be litigated in the United States. Even when a U.S. court has jurisdiction, a case may still be dismissed for forum non conveniens if the court concludes that the case would be more appropriately heard in the courts of another country. This inquiry typically…

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

Maryam Jamshidi

University of Colorado Law School
Bio | Posts

Fikri Soral

Galatasaray University
Bio | Posts

Gregg Cashmark

Vanderbilt Law School
Bio | Posts

Hannah Buxbaum

Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Bio | Posts

Symeon Symeonides

Willamette University College of Law
Bio | Posts

Aaron D. Simowitz

Willamette University College of Law
Bio | Posts

John B. Bellinger

Arnold & Porter LLP
Bio | Posts

R. Reeves Anderson

Arnold & Porter LLP
Bio | Posts

Volodymyr Ponomarov

Arnold & Porter LLP
Bio | Posts

Robin Effron

Brooklyn Law School
Bio | Posts

Scott Dodson

UC Law – San Francisco
Bio | Posts