Transnational litigation is litigation involving persons, events, or transactions with a connection to more than one country. In the United States, transnational litigation may occur in state or federal court. The term encompasses ordinary commercial disputes between parties in different nations, multi-jurisdictional patent wars, and claims based on international human rights law. Transnational litigation cases raise a host of unique issues relating to procedural rules, private contracts, federal statutes, state law, and international treaties.
Jia on the U.S.- China Rivalry
Mark Jia has posted an interesting new article on SSRN, American Law in the New Global Conflict. It considers how China has shaped U.S. law historically and how the current rivalry between the U.S. and China will play out for domestic law. The history is fascinating. It discusses not only the racist and xenophobic Chinese…
Continue ReadingWhen Is International Law a Political Question?
In a provocative essay posted on SSRN, The Political Question Doctrine and International Law, TLB Advisor Curt Bradley looks at the historical relationship between the political question doctrine and international law, arguing that “the political question doctrine emerged in part to allow the political branches, rather than the courts, to make determinations about this country’s—and…
Continue Reading“Sticky Beliefs” about Transnational Litigation
Empirical legal scholarship has been on the rise. But empirical research on transnational litigation remains relatively uncommon. This limits our knowledge of transnational litigation and, by hindering assessment of claims about transnational litigation, it allows what I call “sticky beliefs” to take hold. Sticky beliefs are assertions made without empirical support, which are then uncritically…
Continue Reading