A Deeply Flawed Personal Jurisdiction Decision in the SDNY
When dealing with forum selection clauses, one of the most important—if unappreciated—distinctions is between inbound and outbound clauses. An inbound clause selects the court where the suit was filed. An outbound clause selects a court that is not the forum. Another important distinction is the one between exclusive clauses, which stipulate that suit must be…
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Grants Review in Three Transnational Litigation Cases
Today, the Supreme Court granted review in three transnational litigation cases and denied review in three others. Emma White has discussed each of the cases in greater detail. In Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States, the Court will consider whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act applies to criminal proceedings. Chimène Keitner has previously analyzed…
Continue ReadingNow or Then? The Temporal Aspects of Choice-of-Law Clauses
Several years ago, I published a paper that examined how U.S. courts interpret choice-of-law clauses. That paper contains a detailed discussion of the most common interpretive issues—whether the clause selects the tort laws of the chosen jurisdiction in addition to its contract laws, for example—that arise in litigation. There was, however, one important omission. The…
Continue ReadingThe U.S. Supreme Court, October Term 2022
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court holds its first conference of the October 2022 Term. The term will officially open next week on the first Monday of October. To help readers keep track of petitions and cases raising interesting questions about transnational litigation, we are pleased to announce our new Supreme Court page. At today’s conference,…
Continue ReadingContractual Waivers of Foreign Sovereign Immunity
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) provides that foreign states are immune from suit in the United States unless an exception applies. An important and long-standing exception to immunity is consent (the more common term in international practice) or waiver (the term used in the United States). The FSIA provides that a foreign state shall…
Continue ReadingHow California Broke the Hague Service Convention
The Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters sets forth the rules for serving process on a defendant in another country that is party to the Convention. Under the terms of the Convention, service by mail is not permitted if the nation where the foreign defendant…
Continue ReadingA Baffling Characterization Decision
Characterization plays an important role in a court’s choice-of-law analysis. If an issue is characterized as a “contracts” issue, then the court will apply the choice-of-law rule for contracts to determine the governing law. If an issue is characterized as a “torts” issue, then the court will apply the choice-of-law rule for torts. Because the…
Continue ReadingThe Extraterritorial Application of State Wage and Hour Laws
Many U.S. states have enacted wage and hour laws. These laws generally set a minimum wage and require employers to pay overtime. When a company headquartered in one state hires an employee to perform work in a foreign country, however, it is not always clear which jurisdiction’s laws will apply. Is the payment of wages…
Continue ReadingForum Selection Clause Roundup
Forum selection clauses play a critical role in much transnational litigation. Over the past several months, TLB has published six posts on forum selection clauses. In this post, I try to bring these writings together to show how they all form a coherent narrative. This post is not meant to serve as a substitute for…
Continue ReadingFair Use, the First Amendment, and the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments
A court in the United States is not required to enforce a foreign money judgment when that judgment is “repugnant to the public policy of . . . the United States.” The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the classic example of U.S. public policy on freedom of speech and freedom of the press….
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