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. He is the author of more than two dozen articles on choice-of-law clauses, forum selection clauses, cross-border dispute resolution, and international commercial contracts. Before entering the academy, he worked as a transactional attorney at Covington & Burling LLP and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Substance and Procedure in Conflict of Laws
The field of conflict of laws is famously inscrutable. One of the most enigmatic doctrines in this area is the distinction between “substantive” issues and “procedural” issues. In this post, I first explain how U.S. courts distinguish between these issues for the purpose of resolving horizontal conflicts of law between sovereigns. I then explain how…
Continue ReadingThe Ferrari Is Still in the Warehouse
In July 2022, I authored a blog post about a Ferrari F50 that was sitting in a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol warehouse in upstate New York while a federal court tried to sort out who owned it. I recently discovered that this famed Italian supercar is still sitting in that same warehouse. In this…
Continue ReadingTalaq Divorce Cases in the United States
Over the past several months, three state appellate courts in the United States have examined whether a “talaq” divorce obtained in another country is entitled to recognition as a matter of comity. In this post, I first survey the rules relating to the recognition of foreign divorce judgments. I then explain the concept of a…
Continue Reading