International Comity

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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Maximum Comity: Recognition of Foreign Proceedings Under the Bankruptcy Code

Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code governs cross-border insolvency proceedings. It establishes a comity-based framework within which U.S. courts may recognize certain foreign insolvency proceedings and enforce orders issued in those proceedings. Like other U.S. law on the recognition of foreign proceedings, it includes a public policy exception. This post provides a brief overview…

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Throwback Thursday: Hilton v. Guyot

One hundred and thirty years ago this week, on June 3, 1895, the Supreme Court decided Hilton v. Guyot. Hilton is the seminal decision on recognizing and enforcing foreign judgments in U.S. courts. Although the federal common law rule that Hilton announced has been superseded by state law, Hilton continues to influence state rules in…

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Doe Run Defendants Seek Cert for Foreign Relations Abstention

A pending cert petition in Doe Run Resources v. Reid asks the Supreme Court to dismiss tort claims brought by foreign plaintiffs against a U.S. company, its subsidiaries, and various corporate officers based on foreign relations abstention. The Peruvian plaintiffs allege they were seriously harmed as children by toxic substances, including toxic levels of lead,…

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SDNY Stays Action Based on International Comity

Lower federal courts have developed several forms of abstention based on international comity. Some courts have adopted a doctrine of prescriptive comity abstention to dismiss federal statutory claims when facing a “true conflict” with foreign law. Some have embraced doctrines of adjudicative comity abstention that permit dismissals or stays of federal proceedings in favor of…

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All I Want for Christmas (from the Federal Courts)

Rounding out this week’s posts by John Coyle and Bill Dodge, here’s my wish list for the lower federal courts (plus a bonus plea to the Supreme Court). Stop Violating Rule 4(f) and the Hague Service Convention Rule 4(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure authorizes service of process on defendants “at a place…

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DOJ Argues Against Turnover of Argentina’s Assets

On November 6, 2024, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York sent a letter to Judge Loretta A. Preska arguing against turnover of Argentina’s interests in YPF S.A., a state-owned energy company, to satisfy a breach of contract judgment. The $16.1 billion judgment in Petersen Energia Inversora, S.A.U. v. Argentine Republic arose…

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Comity and Kleptocrats

To succeed in their trade, thieves need a place to stash their ill-gotten gains. Should the United States become a safe haven for international financial wrongdoing, shielding the proceeds of misdeeds whenever the thief brings corrupt government officials into the plot? Zhakiyanov v. Ogai, a recent decision of the Supreme Court of New York, indicates…

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Constitutionality of TVPA Challenged in First Circuit

As previously reported at TLB, a Massachusetts jury last year awarded $15.5 million in damages against Jean Morose Viliena for torture and extrajudicial killing under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). Viliena was mayor of a town in Haiti where the three plaintiffs lived. The jury found him responsible for murdering the brother of one…

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Eighth Circuit Rejects Argument for Foreign-Policy Abstention

On August 1, 2024, the Eighth Circuit issued its decision in Reid v. Doe Run Resources Corp., rejecting defendants’ argument that the case should be dismissed based on international comity. As Maggie Gardner has explained in greater detail here and here, the plaintiffs in Reid are more than 1,400 Peruvian citizens who suffered harm as…

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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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León Castellanos-Jankiewicz

Institute for International and European Law
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