Forum Selection Clauses

SDNY Grants Anti-Suit Injunction Against TV Azteca

For the past several years, parallel litigation has been ongoing in Mexico and the United States between the Mexican media conglomerate TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the Indenture Trustee for a series of TV Azteca’s unsecured notes. Two weeks ago, Judge Paul G. Gardephe (SDNY) granted BNY’s…

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Limits on Damages for Breach of a Forum Selection Clause

Tanya Monestier and I recently posted a draft of a new paper, Limits on Damages for Breach of a Forum Selection Clause, that discusses an important issue at the intersection of contract law and conflict of laws—when it is appropriate to award damages for breach of an exclusive forum selection clause. We build on Tanya’s…

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Opting Out of Federal Law II: Foreign Choice-of-Law Clauses

In a prior post, I examined when a choice-of-law clause selecting the law of a U.S. state may be used to avoid federal laws. In this post, I consider whether a choice-of-law clause selecting the law of a foreign country may be used to accomplish this same goal. The post first examines situations where the…

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Personal Jurisdiction, Consent, and the Law of Agency

I have long argued – in articles, blog posts, and amicus briefs – that it violates due process to invoke a forum selection clause to obtain personal jurisdiction over a defendant who was not a party to the agreement in which the clause appears. This position has not yet achieved universal acceptance. The state courts in…

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California Supreme Court Narrows Grounds for Non-Enforcement of Foreign Forum Selection Clauses

On July 21, 2025, the California Supreme Court issued its first opinion in many years addressing the enforceability of a forum selection clause. In EpicentRx v. Superior Court, it held that the fact that the court named in the clause did not allow for jury trials was not a valid basis for declining to enforce…

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Microsoft Contract Day 2025!

Two years ago today, I authored a post titled “Microsoft’s Dispute Resolution Provisions Are a Mess.” I argued that the “Jurisdiction and Governing Law” language in the form purchase order used by Microsoft and its subsidiaries in 109 countries around the world was “incoherent.”  My goal in writing the post was to inspire/shame Microsoft –…

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The Personal Jurisdiction Case With Everything

In one of my favorite moves, The Princess Bride, the grandfather describes the story as having everything: “Fencing! Fighting! Revenge! Giants! Chases! Escapes! True love! Miracles!” This scene popped into my head when I was reading a recent decision by the Court of Appeals of Texas (Fourteenth District). That opinion, Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London…

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The Many Uses of the Forum Selection Clause

The forum selection clause is the Swiss Army Knife of transnational litigation. Among other things, it may be invoked to: obtain personal jurisdiction over a defendant who otherwise lacks any connection to the chosen jurisdiction; dismiss a case filed in a jurisdiction other than the one named in the clause; defeat an attempt to enforce…

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Forum Selection Clauses in California

In 2024, more than 1.2 million civil lawsuits were filed in California. While most of these suits were between U.S. residents, some of them grew out of international contracts. Some of these international contracts, in turn, contained forum selection clauses choosing the courts of a foreign country. In this post, I take a close look…

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Is It Too Dangerous To Litigate In Israel?

Many international contracts contain forum selection clauses stating that litigation must occur in the courts of a particular country. While these clauses provide a welcome measure of certainty as to where future disputes will be resolved, they are sometimes viewed as inconvenient by plaintiffs who would prefer to sue in the United States. In an…

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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

Mehrunnisa Chaudhry

George Washington University Law School
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Victoria Pino

Vanderbilt Law School
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Robert Kry

MoloLamken LLP
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Rinat Gareev

Whitecliff Management
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