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Act of State Doctrine The act of state doctrine provides that U.S. courts will not question the validity of an official act of a foreign government fully performed within its own territory. The act of state doctrine is a doctrine of federal common law that is binding on state courts as well as federal courts….

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On UNRWA’s Immunity

[This post originally appeared at TWAILR and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.] The U.S. government’s attack on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and indeed on the UN itself, has taken on new form. After instituting an extended freeze on U.S. funding to the…

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TVPRA Claims Against Neil Gaiman

Claims brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) don’t often make headlines. But those filed on February 3, 2025 against British author Neil Gaiman and his American wife Amanda Palmer (who are divorcing) are an exception. Scarlett Pavlovich, who worked for three weeks as a live-in nanny for the couple, alleges that Gaiman…

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Oral Argument in Doe v. Apple

Last week, the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in Doe v. Apple, a case brought by victims of forced labor and human trafficking against five U.S. technology companies. The plaintiffs are children or family members of children who were injured or killed mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The defendants—Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft,…

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Cert Petition Raises Personal Jurisdiction Question in Context of the TVPRA

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) explicitly authorizes extraterritorial application to six predicate offenses (18 U.S.C. § 1596) and creates a private right of action (18 U.S.C. § 1595). Assuming without deciding that § 1595’s civil remedy extends extraterritorially to the same extent as those six predicate offenses, the Ninth Circuit in Ratha v….

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Corporate Registration and Jurisdiction in Transnational Litigation

When companies register to do business in a U.S. state, are they granting state courts the power to exercise jurisdiction over them for claims arising outside the state—and perhaps outside the country? The answer to this question is not an easy one. The effect of business registration is hotly contested in the United State, and…

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A Primer on Forum Selection Clauses

A forum selection clause is a contractual provision that selects a court to resolve disputes. When suit is filed in a court that is not the chosen forum, the clause may provide a basis for dismissal or transfer. When suit is filed in the chosen forum, the clause may provide a basis for the assertion…

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Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School
ingrid.brunk@vanderbilt.eduEmail

William Dodge

George Washington University Law School
william.dodge@law.gwu.eduEmail

Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law School
mgardner@cornell.eduEmail

John F. Coyle

University of North Carolina School of Law
jfcoyle@email.unc.eduEmail

Hannah Buxbaum

UC Davis School of Law
hbuxbaum@ucdavis.eduEmail

Marketa Trimble

William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Aaron D. Simowitz

Willamette University College of Law
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Robert Kry

MoloLamken LLP
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Jackson Myers

MoloLamken LLP
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Russell Pulver

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Rachel Bayefsky

University of Virginia School of Law
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Paul B. Stephan

University of Virginia School of Law
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Alex Rivenbark

Law Clerk
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Junhao Chen

New York University
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Yanbai Andrea Wang

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
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