Eighth Circuit Weighing Adoption of Foreign Relations Abstention
The Eighth Circuit will soon hear an interlocutory appeal to consider permitting abstention based on foreign relations concerns. In Reid v. Doe Run Resources Corp. (as the case is captioned on appeal),...
View ArticleFinancial Hardship and Forum Selection Clauses
The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that a forum selection clause should not be enforced when “trial in the contractual forum will be so gravely difficult and inconvenient” that the plaintiff “will...
View ArticleEvergreen Content at TLB
In addition to covering new developments in transnational litigation, TLB aims to provide evergreen content that can serve as resources for practitioners, students, and academics. Our topic pages...
View ArticleHow to Criticize U.S. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (Part I)
[This post is based on a lecture delivered at Wuhan University School of Law on October 15, 2023] China has been critical of U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction. In February, China’s Ministry of Foreign...
View ArticleHow to Criticize U.S. Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (Part II)
[This post is based on a lecture delivered at Wuhan University School of Law on October 15, 2023] There are better and worse ways to criticize U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction. In yesterday’s post, I...
View ArticleHappy Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the United States, so TLB is taking a break. We are thankful for you, our readers, around the world. If you celebrate the holiday, we wish you happiness with your family...
View ArticleParsing Invalidating Statutes (Part I)
In previous posts, I have written about how the precise language used in a choice-of-law or forum selection clause can prove consequential in litigation. In this post, I argue that the precise language...
View ArticleParsing Invalidating Statutes (Part II)
In a prior post, I argued that the precise language used in state statutes purporting to invalidate choice-of-law clauses and forum selection clauses can have outsized effects in litigation. In this...
View ArticleInternational Custody Jurisdiction, Human Rights, and Legislative Change
The Court of Appeals of Washington State recently issued an unpublished opinion that will serve as a benchmark for parents who flee certain countries with their children, seeking safe harbor in the...
View ArticleDistrict Court Stays Debt Litigation Against Sri Lanka at U.S. Request
Hamilton Reserve Bank Ltd. calls itself the “hometown bank of America’s founding father Alexander Hamilton.” In a recent case, however, the bank found itself at odds with the Treasury Department that...
View ArticleSplitting the Difference on the Closely-Related-and-Foreseeable Test
Over the past decade, the lower federal courts have repeatedly considered whether non-signatories to a contract may be bound by a forum selection clause if they are so “closely related” to a signatory...
View ArticleMDL-ing Transnational Litigation
What happens when the tax authority of the Kingdom of Denmark believes it was defrauded by more than 150 pension plans across the United States? A multidistrict litigation! This post briefly summarizes...
View ArticleExecution of Judgments Against the Assets of Foreign Sovereigns Located Abroad
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) provides immunity from execution for the “property in the United States of a foreign state.” It does not confer immunity on a foreign state’s property...
View ArticleCert Sought to Resolve Circuit Split on Anti-Suit Injunction Standard
It is not uncommon for parties to a transnational dispute to file competing lawsuits in different nation’s courts. It is uncommon for a U.S. court to try to stop parties from pursuing such foreign...
View ArticleDomestic Litigation and Compensation to Ukrainian Victims of Russian Aggression
Many proposals to compensate Ukrainian victims of Russian aggression do not directly involve domestic courts, in part because foreign sovereign immunity poses significant obstacles to such litigation....
View ArticleChina’s New Foreign State Immunity Law: Some Foreign Relations Aspects
On September 1, 2023, the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC Standing Committee) passed the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Foreign State Immunity (FSIL) (English...
View ArticleIncorporation by Reference and Choice of Law
The choice-of-law clause written into the contract of carriage for Delta Air Lines, Inc. (Delta) states that the agreement “shall be governed by and enforced in accordance with the laws of the United...
View ArticleNew Article on Cross-Border Discovery
In the most recent issue of Judicature, Judge Michael Baylson and Professor Steven Gensler have a new article related to cross-border discovery—that is, discovery abroad in support of adjudication in...
View ArticleU.S. Brief in Halkbank Abandons Customary International Law in Immunity Cases
In Turkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States (Halkbank), the Supreme Court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) does not apply to criminal proceedings. The Court remanded Halkbank’s...
View ArticleTLB in 2023
As we prepare to ring in the new year, we at TLB are grateful for both the breadth and the depth of engagement by you, our readers. Our goals continue to be three-fold: to build a community of scholars...
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