Personal Jurisdiction and the Montreal Convention
I recently discussed the Fifth Circuit’s remarkably unremarkable personal jurisdiction analysis in a case involving a Montreal Convention claim. Before reaching the constitutional personal jurisdiction analysis, however, the panel in Hardy v. Scandinavian Airlines System first rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the Montreal Convention itself established personal jurisdiction over the defendant airline, either directly or…
Continue ReadingFrom Standards to Rules in Private International Law?
Linda Silberman, Clarence D. Ashley Professor of Law Emerita at NYU School of Law and TLB Advisor, has recently posted to SSRN a number of her lectures from her summer 2021 Hague Academy General Course in Private International Law, updated to reflect changes through 2024. The series of lectures, entitled The Counter-Revolution in Private International…
Continue ReadingFifth Circuit Doubles Down on International Shoe
A recent Fifth Circuit decision stoutly reaffirmed that court’s en banc position that the personal jurisdiction analysis is the same under the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments. Indeed, reading Hardy v. Scandinavian Airlines System, one would have no idea that a vocal minority of federal appellate judges have been calling for a veritable revolution in…
Continue ReadingUsing TLB to Teach Civil Procedure (2024 Update)
If you are teaching civil procedure this fall, TLB can help. This post gathers materials that can complement a standard civil procedure course, whether by providing concise overviews of doctrines, helping to track Supreme Court developments, or suggesting recent cases that can spark discussions of perennial procedural issues. Personal Jurisdiction TLB has a new primer…
Continue ReadingThird Circuit Addresses Email Service under the Hague Service Convention
A new decision by the Third Circuit, SEC v. Lahr, correctly analyzes the tricky question of email service under the Hague Service Convention. The court’s clear explanation will be of great help to district courts across the country, which remain divided on this question. Unfortunately, the Third Circuit chose not to publish its decision, so…
Continue ReadingFuld and Waldman Plaintiffs Seek Supreme Court Review
TLB has followed the Second Circuit’s decisions holding unconstitutional the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act of 2019 (PSJVTA) and denying an en banc rehearing in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization and Waldman v. Palestine Liberation Organization over a strong dissent by Judge Steven Menashi. As predicted, the plaintiffs recently filed a…
Continue ReadingDesperately Seeking Interlocutory Appeal
Despite some excellent opinions correctly interpreting the Hague Service Convention (HSC) and Rule 4(f)(3) in recent years, the district courts continue to be deeply divided on recurring questions of international service of process, in particular the permissibility of service by email or by other electronic means. Bill Dodge and I think such questions are clearly…
Continue ReadingA Primer on Personal Jurisdiction
(Updated August 19, 2025) Personal jurisdiction (or “authority to adjudicate”) refers to the authority of a court to make a binding determination with respect to a person or a thing. In personam jurisdiction refers to the authority to determine the rights or obligations of a person (including a business). In rem jurisdiction refers to the…
Continue ReadingNew Article on Old Admiralty Discretion
The Notre Dame Law Review has just published my new article, “Admiralty, Abstention and the Allure of Old Cases.” The heart of the article is a description of the federal courts’ long-standing discretion to decline jurisdiction over admiralty disputes between foreign parties. Defendants in transnational cases have recently tried to invoke this old admiralty practice…
Continue ReadingFourth Circuit Applies Recent Supreme Court Decision on RICO Injuries
In Percival Partners Ltd. v. Nduom, the Fourth Circuit (Judge Harris, joined by Judge Thacker and Judge Richardson) applied last Term’s decision in Yegiazaryan v. Smagin (2023) to conclude that the plaintiffs’ alleged RICO injury was impermissibly extraterritorial. In an analysis that embraced Yegiazaryan’s contextual approach to siting RICO injuries, the Fourth Circuit held that…
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