Recent Cases

Ninth Circuit Allows Human Rights Claims Against Cisco to Proceed

There may yet be life in the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). The Ninth Circuit recently held, in Doe I v. Cisco Systems, Inc., that Chinese practitioners of Falun Gong could go forward with claims of aiding and abetting human rights violations against Cisco Systems, which designed and built a surveillance system for the People’s Republic…

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What is a “Domestic Application” of the Lanham Act? The Supreme Court Creates More Questions than It Answers

In Abitron Austria Gmbh v. Hetronic International, Inc., the Supreme Court appears to have returned to its recent preference for bright-line rules in cases assessing the extraterritoriality of federal statutes, but the brightness of this rule will dim as other fact patterns are considered.

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Mallory Decision Opens New Path for Personal Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court’s decision in Mallory re-opens the door to suing foreign companies in U.S. courts over disputes that arise in other countries. It may also have significant repercussions for personal jurisdiction doctrine more broadly.

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Smagin‘s Surprises

Last week’s decision in Yegiazaryan v. Smagin was surprising in a number of respects, from the line-up of the Justices to the possible shift it signals in the presumption against extraterritoriality.

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“Tag Service” and Section 1782

[This post originally appeared at Letters Blogatory and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.] Bill Dodge has a really interesting post about a decision from the bench in an SDNY Section 1782 case, In re Fourworld Event Opportunities Fund. Decisions like this are from the darkest corner of the legal dark web. They are not published. They are not available…

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Tagging Corporate Directors for Discovery under Section 1782

Section 1782 authorizes federal district courts to order any person who “resides or is found in” the judicial district to provide discovery “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” The Second Circuit has held that “that § 1782’s ‘resides or is found’ language extends to the limits of personal jurisdiction consistent…

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Divided Fifth Circuit Panel Affirms Antisuit Injunction in Tragic Case

Normally, the fact that the Fifth Circuit affirmed an antisuit injunction would not be noteworthy. The Fifth Circuit is among the circuits that has adopted a liberal approach to antisuit injunctions, and all circuits review a district court’s decision to grant or deny such an injunction for abuse of discretion. But the decision in Ganpat…

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Sanctions Against Russia and Section 1782 Discovery

Since the “military operation” in Ukraine began in 2022, Russia has become the most sanctioned country in the world. U.S. blocking and sectoral sanctions now cover numerous Russian entities, especially banks, which were the most active litigants in transnational disputes. The U.S.-Russia relationship is probably at its worst in 30 years, and Russia has officially…

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Officials Who Kidnapped Hotel Rwanda Hero Are Not Immune from Suit

In 1994, Paul Rusesabagina was the manager of a hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. During the genocide, he sheltered 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees, all of whom survived. His courage inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda,” and in 2005 President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rusesabagina became a human rights advocate and vocal critic…

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Supreme Court Ducks Fifth Amendment Due Process Question

The Supreme Court denied certiorari yesterday in Douglass v. Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha. This highly-watched case raises an important question that the Court will have to address sooner or later:  the Fifth Amendment due process limitations on personal jurisdiction. The Supreme Court’s personal jurisdiction cases have repeatedly interpreted the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment…

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Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School
ingrid.wuerth@vanderbilt.eduEmail

William Dodge

UC Davis School of Law
wsdodge@ucdavis.eduEmail

Maggie Gardner

Cornell Law School
mgardner@cornell.eduEmail

John F. Coyle

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

Zachary D. Clopton

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
zclopton@law.northwestern.eduEmail

Will Moon

University of Maryland
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William K. McGoughran

Vanderbilt Law School
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Chimène Keitner

UC Davis School of Law
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Catherine Amirfar

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
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Justin R. Rassi

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
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Isabelle Glimcher

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
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Ben Köhler

Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
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Aaron D. Simowitz

Willamette University College of Law
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Timothy D. Lytton

Georgia State University College of Law
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Chukwuma Okoli

University of Birmingham
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Abubakri Yekini

University of Manchester
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