Personal Jurisdiction

Non-Signatories, Forum Selection Clauses, and Personal Jurisdiction in the SDNY

Over the past few decades, U.S. courts have adopted a new legal test that makes it easier to bind individuals to forum selection clauses in contracts they did not sign. This test posits that a non-signatory is bound by a forum selection clause if it is so “closely related” to the signatory that it was “foreseeable”…

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Foreign Defendants and the Future of Personal Jurisdiction

The Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in yet another personal jurisdiction case (the eighth such case in just over ten years). Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Rwy. Co. has no transnational facts, but it is highly relevant for the future of transnational litigation in U.S. courts. Corporate registration statutes, like the one being challenged in Mallory,…

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New Article Argues that the Helms-Burton Act Has Backfired

In an article recently posted on SSRN, Gergana Sivrieva surveys cases filed under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act for trafficking in expropriated property. She shows that, surprisingly, the principal defendants have not been foreign companies investing in Cuba but rather U.S. companies with only attenuated connections to such property. Congress passed the Helm-Burton Act…

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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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Litigating a Russian Bond Default

Russian 200 ruble note

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the sanctions imposed in response by the United States and other governments, have fueled expectations of a Russian sovereign debt default. Despite the Russian government’s recent coupon payments on two dollar bonds and apparent desire to avoid default, prices remain in deeply distressed territory. As often happens in such…

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S.D.N.Y. Holds Consent-Based Personal Jurisdiction over the PLO Unconstitutional

Palestinian flag

The Southern District of New York recently held in Fuld v. Palestine Liberation Organization that a federal statute subjecting the Palestine Liberation Organization (“PLO”) to personal jurisdiction violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The case adds to a growing list of important due process questions in transnational litigation.

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A Primer on Foreign Judgments

In the United States, the recognition and enforcement of foreign-country judgments is generally governed by state law. Nevertheless, the law on foreign judgments is fairly uniform throughout the United States because most states have adopted one of two Uniform Acts. These Acts establish a presumption that final, conclusive, and enforceable foreign judgments are entitled to…

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Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk

Vanderbilt Law School
ingrid.wuerth@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

Zachary D. Clopton

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

Gary Born

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
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Robert Kry

MoloLamken LLP
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Luana Matoso

Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
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Curtis A. Bradley

University of Chicago Law School
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Pamela K. Bookman

Fordham University School of Law
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Matthew Salavitch

Fordham Law School
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Hannah Buxbaum

Indiana University Maurer School of Law
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Paul B. Stephan

University of Virginia School of Law
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