A Primer on International Comity
The Supreme Court in Hilton v. Guyot (1895) famously defined international comity as “the recognition which one nation allows within its territory to the legislative, executive or judicial acts of another nation.” That definition is incomplete, however, as comity encompasses much more than the recognition of foreign acts. The Restatement (Fourth) of Foreign Relations Law…
Continue Reading“Catching and Killing” Suits Against Boeing
A recent decision by the Northern District of Illinois (Judge Franklin Valderrama) exemplifies the phenomenon that TLB advisor Zach Clopton has termed catch and kill jurisdiction: when federal courts stretch to take cases from state courts only to dismiss them on procedural grounds that the state courts would not have applied. In Wragge v. Boeing,…
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 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 ReadingPersonal Jurisdiction Gone Wrong: Barring U.S. Consumers from Suing Foreign Carmakers for Design Defects
The U.S. Supreme Court has twice emphasized (most recently in 2021) that the ability to sue a carmaker where the plaintiff lives and was injured is a quintessential exercise of personal jurisdiction. In Sellers v. Volkswagen AG, a Mississippi resident injured in Mississippi sued Volkswagen in Mississippi. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District…
Continue ReadingA Primer on Forum Non Conveniens
Under the doctrine of forum non conveniens, a judge may dismiss a case on the understanding that the case would be better heard in another sovereign’s court. It is a judge-made discretionary doctrine that can be invoked even if the court otherwise has proper jurisdiction over the case. This primer describes the current federal doctrine…
Continue ReadingUsing TLB To Teach Transnational Litigation
One of our goals in creating TLB was to compile a set of educational resources for students and teachers. As we gear up for a new academic year, we will be running a series of posts highlighting TLB content that may be useful to professors of Civil Procedure, Foreign Relations Law, International Business Transactions (IBT),…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: The Human Rights of Foreign Sailors
Litigation in U.S. courts involving gross misconduct committed outside the United States by non-U.S. actors did not begin with the revival of the Alien Tort Statute in the 1980s. In the earlier era of global trade that centered around maritime commerce, U.S. admiralty courts at times remedied—often with moral outrage—wrongs committed on the high seas….
Continue ReadingSupreme Court Round-Up, OT 2021
Transnational litigation has been a persistent, if small, part of the Supreme Court’s docket in the Roberts Court. With the Supreme Court now on its summer break, here is a summary of TLB’s coverage of October Term 2021 cases, which included important decisions on choice of law and federalism and on discovery for use in…
Continue ReadingWhen the U.S. Sues Foreign Manufacturers
What if Robert Nicastro had been the U.S. Government? After J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro, U.S. citizens harmed by products manufactured by foreign companies may not be able to sue in U.S. courts for lack of personal jurisdiction. In United States v. Aquatherm GmBH, a foreign manufacturer had similarly structured its sales into the…
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