Using TLB to Teach International Business Transactions

This post continues our series explaining how professors can use resources on TLB to teach various classes. Previous posts have discussed Transnational Litigation and Civil Procedure. This post discusses International Business Transactions (IBT).

Although TLB focuses on litigation and IBT focuses on transactions, there is a great deal of overlap. The most obvious examples are contractual clauses that plan for dispute resolution, like forum selection clauses, arbitration clauses, and choice of law clauses. But TLB has also run posts on other issues relevant to international transactions, including extraterritoriality, corruption, human rights, the CISG, sanctions, antitrust, expropriation, and sovereign debt.

Primers and Topic Pages

TLB has published a growing number of “primers” on topics relevant to IBT, including the act of state doctrine, choice of law clauses, extraterritoriality, foreign judgments, forum selection clauses, and human rights litigation. These primers are a good way to bring students up to speed quickly on a topic. Each primer links to more in-depth posts and resources.

In addition to these primers, TLB’s topic pages include links to important primary materials (like cases, statutes, and treaties) as well as significant works of scholarship. The topic pages also collect recent posts in reverse chronological order, providing opportunities to build students’ awareness of current developments and spark class discussion.

A Selection of Relevant Posts

Below are some suggestions of relevant posts dealing with areas often covered in IBT. The order generally follows the organization of Vagts, Dodge, Buxbaum & Koh, Transnational Business Problems (6th ed. 2019). But professors can easily rearrange the topics if they are using other books or their own materials.

International Dispute Resolution

• Primer on Forum Selection Clauses
• A Primer on Choice of Law Clauses
• Interpreting Foreign Forum Selection Clauses
• The Comparative Value of Choice of Law and Forum Selection Clauses
• Throwback Thursday: Choice-of-Law Clauses Through the Lens of Contract
• Corporate Registration and Jurisdiction in Transnational Litigation
• Where is the U.S. International Commercial Court?
• ZF Automotive: A Practitioner’s Perspective

Extraterritoriality

• A Primer on Extraterritoriality
• Ninth Circuit Deepens Split over Extraterritoriality of Civil RICO

Corruption

• S. Courts Gut Key Provision of U.N. Convention Against Corruption
• The Role of the FCPA in Transnational Litigation

Business and Human Rights

• A Primer on Human Rights Litigation
• Has the Alien Tort Statute Made a Difference?
• The ATS Clarification Act Can Protect Human Rights and Level the Playing Field for U.S. Businesses

Sale of Goods

• CISG Opt-Outs and Party Intent
• Rewarding Ignorance of the CISG: A Response to John Coyle
• District Court Holds that Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act Does Not Apply Extraterritorially

Sanctions

• Russia Should Not be Designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism
• Afghan Central Bank Assets Should Be Immune in Cases against the Taliban

Antitrust

• Throwback Thursday: International Association of Machinists v. OPEC
• Second Circuit Rejects Act of State Doctrine in Antitrust Case
• Cert Petition Challenges Second Circuit’s Comity Abstention Doctrine

Expropriation

• A Primer on the Act of State Doctrine
• C. Circuit Addresses FSIA in Hungarian Art Case
• New Article Argues that the Helms-Burton Act Has Backfired

Sovereign Debt

• Litigating a Russian Bond Default