Law Commons^™

Fixing Forum Selling, Brian L. Frye, Christopher J. Ryan Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

"Forum selling” is jurisdictional competition intended to attract litigants. While consensual forum selling may be beneficial, non-consensual forum selling is harmful because it encourages jurisdictions to adopt an inefficient pro-plaintiff bias. In the last 20 years, the Eastern District of Texas has adopted an aggressive and remarkably successful policy of non-consensual forum selling in patent infringement actions. In 2016, 44% of all patent infringement actions were filed in the Eastern District of Texas, and 93% of them were filed by patent assertion entities or “patent trolls.”

In December 2016, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in TC Heartland v. Kraft, …

Against Data Exceptionalism, Andrew Keane Woods

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

One of the great regulatory challenges of the Internet era—indeed, one of today's most pressing privacy questions—is how to define the limits of government access to personal data stored in the cloud. This is particularly true today because the cloud has gone global, raising a number of questions about the proper reach of one state's authority over cloud-based data. The prevailing response to these questions by scholars, practitioners, and major Internet companies like Google and Facebook has been to argue that data is different. Data is “unterritorial,” they argue, and therefore incompatible with existing territorial notions of jurisdiction. This Article …

The Offshore Asset Protection Trust: A Prudent Financial Planning Device Or The Last Refuge Of A Scoundrel?, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In recent years, a large number of Americans have established "asset protection trusts" in foreign countries. An asset protection trust is a self-settled spendthrift trust which is created in order to protect the settlor's property from the claims of creditors. Virtually all American jurisdictions recognize spendthrift trusts, which prohibit both voluntary and involuntary alienation of a third party beneficiary's interest in a trust; however, most do not allow a settlor who has retained a beneficial interest in a spendthrift trust to protect that interest from the claims of creditors. A growing number of present and former British possessions, however, have …

A Solution To The Yahoo! Problem? The Ec E-Commerce Directive As A Model For International Cooperation On Internet Choice Of Law, Mark F. Kightlinger

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In May 2000, a French court decided that a French law banning the display of Nazi materials for sale applies to an auction website hosted by the California-based company Yahoo! Inc. The following year, at the request of Yahoo! Inc., a U.S. District Court declared that the French judgment was unenforceable in the United States because enforcing it would violate an important public policy-the First Amendment. These two cases have attracted considerable attention because they crystallize a difficult problem. The Internet is global. Every website potentially reaches every home on the planet. Thus, website content or activity that may be …

The Effectiveness And Fairness Of Superfund's Judicial Review Preclusion Provision, Michael P. Healy

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This article examines the effectiveness and fairness of section 113(h) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund). That broadly-worded provision forecloses judicial review of Superfund cleanups prior to enforcement or cleanup completion by requiring that any review action fall within several narrowly-defined exceptions.

After providing an overview of the statute, its enforcement mechanisms, and a context for considering section 113(h), the article summarizes how courts have applied CERCLA's timing of review provision, focusing principally on recent interpretations of the provision. Finally, the article evaluates the effectiveness and fairness of CERCLA review preclusion and concludes by …

Starting Down The Road To Reform: Kentucky's New Long-Arm Statute For Family Obligations, Louise Everett Graham

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Kentucky has long needed a comprehensive family law provision for its long-arm statute. Before the general long-arm statute was amended by the 1992 General Assembly, it addressed only a narrow class of paternity cases among its specific jurisdictional provisions, ignoring the need for long-arm jurisdiction in other domestic relations cases. A second long-arm statute provided jurisdiction over some nonresidents to establish or enforce child support obligations. In the contexts of divorce and child support, Kentucky's failure to claim constitutionally available jurisdiction deprived Kentucky residents of important protection.

Recent amendments to Kentucky statutes fill previous gaps and expand Kentucky's jurisdiction in …

3rd Annual Federal Practice Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law, John R. Leathers, Willam M. Lear, Edward H. Johnstone, Eugene E. Siler, Frank E. Haddad, Laramie L. Leatherman, Melissa Forsythe, Gregory L. Monge, Leonard Green, Thomas D. Lambros, Stanley M. Chesley, Charles S. Cassis

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Outline of speakers' presentations from the 3rd Annual Federal Practice Institute held by UK/CLE on September 23, 1988.

Venue Of Civil Actions In Kentucky, William H. Fortune

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this paper is primarily to analyze Kentucky’s venue statutes, and secondarily to suggest the path to reform. The paper is divided into four parts. Part I is a brief history of the confusion in Kentucky between jurisdiction and venue. Some exposure to this history is essential to an understanding of the older cases, which in some areas are the only cases in point. Part II is an analysis of the four major venue statutes in KRS Chapter 454: KRS § 452.400—actions involving land; KRS § 452.450-actions against corporations; KRS § 452.460—actions for personal injury or property damage; …

Survey Of Czechoslovak Laws Affecting East-West Trade, Stephen J. Vasek Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Between 1960 and 1967 all of the major codes of Czechoslovak laws were redrafted. The culminating work in the redrafting process was the New Economic Model (NEM) which became effective in January, 1967. Under the NEM, allocation of resources and trade decisions were to be made primarily on the basis of profitability. The key to the implementation of the profit motive was the new market price system, under which prices were eventually to be determined by supply and demand rather than set by administrative fiat. Bonuses were to be paid workers and managers based upon the profitability of their enterprise. …