Law Commons^™

Reconciling Forum-Selection And Choice-Of-Law Clauses, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In a recent article, Professor Tanya Monestier argued that courts should change their ways so as to apply lex fori to all questions involving forum-selection clauses. I agree that lex fori governs matters of enforceability, but I disagree as to matters of interpretation. On the basis of case law and policy arguments, I argue that the law chosen by the contract should govern interpretation of the forum-selection clause.

Governing Law On Forum-Selection Agreements, Kevin M. Clermont

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The task of determining which law governs a contractual choice-of-forum clause is an enigma to courts. The key to its solution lies at the very heart of the subject, where one encounters its most celebrated riddle: Which law governs when the parties have also agreed to a choice-of-law clause-that is, does a court first test the forum-selection clause under the law of the seised forum, or does one first look at the parties' choice of law to apply the chosen law to the forum-selection clause?

This chicken-or-egg mystery throws courts into contortions. Prior commentators have opted for the chosen law. …

The Law Governing Arbitration Agreements In International Trade, Daniele Lingua

LLM Theses and Essays

This paper on the law applicable to arbitration agreements will start with an examination of the provisions adopted in international conventions on arbitration. The reason for this approach lies in the fact that, when national statutes contain choic of law rules specifically applicable to arbitration agreements, such rules tend to conform to those adopted by the conventions. However, problems of incompatibility between national choice of law provisions and the interpretation of international conventions may arise in the case of those countries which extend their general choice of law rules regarding contracts to rules concerning international arbitration agreements. Finally, this paper …

The Proper Law Of Business Torts, Georg H. Kutschelis

LLM Theses and Essays

This paper's purpose is to define as clearly as possible the law that best fits business torts which bring into play two or more systems of law. The definition of "tort" being another field in which scholarly activity has not led to a consensus, and the qualification of "business tort" considerably adding to the vagueness of the subject, it is sufficient here to state that the thrust of this analysis is on choice-of-law problems. But in order to test the resulting rule or method cases will be selected both from the frequent tort cases arising out of accidents and from …