John Coyle
University of North Carolina School of Law
John F. Coyle is the Reef C. Ivey II Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law. He is a past chair of the AALS Section on Conflict of Laws and is currently an Adviser for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws. His articles on choice-of-law clauses, forum selection clauses, cross-border dispute resolution, and international commercial contracts have appeared in journals such as the Notre Dame Law Review, the William & Mary Law Review, the North Carolina Law Review, and the Iowa Law Review. Before entering the academy, he worked as a transactional attorney at Covington & Burling LLP and clerked for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Happy New Year!
TLB will be on break until January 6, 2026. We wish you all the best in the new year!
Continue ReadingThe Marginal Utility of Choice-of-Law Clauses
I spend a lot of time researching and writing and thinking about choice-of-law clauses. So much so that I sometimes worry that I’ve fallen victim to a cognitive bias known as the law of the instrument or (more colorfully) Maslow’s Hammer. This bias arises when a person acquires a specific skill and thereafter looks for…
Continue ReadingArizona Supreme Court Rejects the “Closely Related” Doctrine
When may a litigant take advantage of a forum selection clause in a contract that he never signed? This is a question that has attracted considerable attention from the courts (and on this blog). Historically, a non-party was covered by a clause only when permitted under such doctrines as assumption, agency, piercing the corporate veil,…
Continue Reading