John F. Coyle

A Costly Drafting Mistake

When I teach Conflict of Laws, I spend a lot of time showing my class how to draft a good choice-of-law clause. It’s not hard. Everything you need to know is laid out in the Primer on Choice-of-Law Clauses. Unfortunately, these instructions are not always followed. In one recent case, Pool Scouts Franchising LLC v….

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Microsoft Contract Day 2025!

Two years ago today, I authored a post titled “Microsoft’s Dispute Resolution Provisions Are a Mess.” I argued that the “Jurisdiction and Governing Law” language in the form purchase order used by Microsoft and its subsidiaries in 109 countries around the world was “incoherent.”  My goal in writing the post was to inspire/shame Microsoft –…

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Who Has the Authority to Waive Sovereign Immunity Via Contract?

In a prior post, Ingrid Brunk and I wrote about the ways that foreign nations can waive their sovereign immunity via various types of contractual provisions. There are, however, additional requirements that must be satisfied for a contractual waiver of sovereign immunity to be valid. Among other things, a party seeking to enforce such a…

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Zach Clopton Named Interim Dean of Northwestern

We are delighted to share that TLB Editor Zach Clopton has been named the interim dean of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. In light of his new responsibilities, Zach will be stepping away from his editorial duties at TLB. We have pasted below some of his “greatest hits” to highlight the breadth and depth…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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

León Castellanos-Jankiewicz

Institute for International and European Law
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Paul B. Stephan

University of Virginia School of Law
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Robin Effron

Brooklyn Law School
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Maryam Jamshidi

University of Colorado Law School
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Fikri Soral

Galatasaray University
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Gregg Cashmark

Vanderbilt Law School
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Hannah Buxbaum

Indiana University Maurer School of Law
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Symeon Symeonides

Willamette University College of Law
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Aaron D. Simowitz

Willamette University College of Law
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John B. Bellinger

Arnold & Porter LLP
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R. Reeves Anderson

Arnold & Porter LLP
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Volodymyr Ponomarov

Arnold & Porter LLP
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