Trademarks and Foreign Forum Selection Clauses
The task of deciding whether a forum selection clause should be given effect can be burdensome. A federal court must evaluate whether the clause is valid. It must interpret the clause to determine whether it is exclusive and covers the claims asserted. And it must assess whether the clause is enforceable under the test laid…
Continue ReadingSovereign Immunity and Choice-of-Law Clauses
On its face, a choice-of-law clause selecting the laws of the United States (or a state within the United States) may seem irrelevant to whether a foreign nation has waived its sovereign immunity in U.S. courts. Over the years, however, a number of U.S. courts have held that a choice-of-law clause may, in fact, function as an implied…
Continue ReadingMontana Supreme Court Decides International Child Custody Case
The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act discourages forum shopping in child custody disputes by assigning subject-matter jurisdiction to the court located in the “home state” of the child. In Allen v. Allen, decided on April 21, 2026, the Montana Supreme Court had to determine whether the child’s “home state” was Montana or the…
Continue ReadingIf You Give a Mouse a Forum Selection Clause…
Many U.S. states have chosen to write “anti-waiver” provisions into statutory schemes that confer rights on in-state residents. Anti-waiver statutes provide that rights conferred by the statutory scheme cannot be waived. On a number of occasions, the courts have adopted “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” logic to hold that these statutes invalidate forum…
Continue ReadingTransnational Employment Disputes and Forum Non Conveniens
When a company headquartered in the United States enters into an employment contract with an individual working abroad, both parties generally expect the relationship to be mutually beneficial. In most cases, these expectations are realized. In a small number of cases, however, the relationship collapses into acrimony. When this occurs, the U.S. employer may bring…
Continue ReadingIs the Closely Related Doctrine a Creature of State or Federal Law?
The closely related doctrine, discussed here and here and here, posits that a non-signatory to a contract may be bound by a forum selection clause in that contract if the non-signatory is so “closely related” to a signatory that it was “foreseeable” that it would be bound. Robin Effron and I have argued that using…
Continue ReadingA Drafting Catastrophe
While on vacation at the Breathless Montego Bay Resort and Spa in Jamaica, Jacqueline Williams slipped and fell. Upon returning home to Wisconsin, Williams filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Illinois alleging negligence against five companies that allegedly owned or operated the resort. The corporate defendants moved to dismiss based on forum non…
Continue ReadingA Tangled Mess in New Hampshire
Characterization plays an important role in conflict of laws. When the choice-of-law rules for contracts are different than the choice-of-law rules for property, a court’s decision to characterize an issue as sounding in “contract” or “property” will inevitably affect which jurisdiction’s law is applied. The New Hampshire Supreme Court grappled with the issue of characterization—though…
Continue ReadingWho Owns the Li Manuscripts?
Li Rui was born in China in 1917. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1937 and became Chairman Mao’s personal secretary in 1958. After Li Rui publicly criticized Mao and the CCP in 1959, he was sent to jail and work camps for the next twenty years. In 1979, Li Rui was released…
Continue ReadingHappy Birthday to TLB!
On March 28, 2022, Transnational Litigation Blog went live. Our very first post, titled Why Transnational Litigation?, listed the many reasons why we thought the world needed a blog devoted to the topic of transnational litigation. While it is unlikely that this post will ever achieve a status akin to the very first sketch on…
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