Jurisdiction Commons^™

Professor Lowenfeld Responds, Andreas F. Lowenfeld

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Silberman is as usual gracious in acknowledging my writings in various formats, and my efforts to restore conflict of laws to its place as a branch of international law, a place it has occupied in most of the world outside the United States, and occupied here as well in the view of Story and others who wrote before the balkanization of American law in the latter part of the nineteenth century. We have no disagreements on the value of the comparative method in teaching conflict of laws, civil procedure, or international litigation.

This brief response is addressed only to …

Judicial Jurisdiction In The Conflict Of Laws Course: Adding A Comparative Dimension, Linda J. Silberman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, Professor Silberman suggests that comparative law materials can usefully be introduced in the conflict of laws course. She proposes the subject of adjudicatory jurisdiction as a good place to start. She argues that a comparison of the U.S. approach with the English and European approaches (particularly under the Brussels Convention) is evidence of the desirability of a jurisdictional system grounded more on rules and/or discretion rather than on a constitutional standard of reasonableness. She takes issue with the contention of her colleague Professor Andreas Lowenfeld that "reasonableness" has been accepted as an international standard for the assertion …

Conflict Of Laws And Accuracy In The Allocation Of Government Responsibility, Joel P. Trachtman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The field of conflict of laws suffers from a lack of theoretical coherence, and therefore fails to provide a satisfactory basis for discourse, adjudication, legislation, and inter-governmental negotiation regarding issues of prescriptive scope. This Article advances a law and economics-based approach to conflict of laws for use in both the domestic and international context. The Article first assesses the theoretical coherence of some principal conflict of laws approaches, analyzing their resolution of four tensions: predictability and adminstrability versus accuracy, unilateralism versus multilateralism, private interest versus public interests, and courts versus legislatures. It refers to Professor Baxter's "comparative impairment" methodology as …

Conflict Of Laws -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), Elliott E. Cheatham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Jurisdiction of courts over foreign corporations is a developing subject. Almost all aspects of it are touched on by decision or discussion in two cases in different courts and under different statutes; one case was in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the other in the United States district court.

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Tucker v. International Salt Co. was an action in a state court in contract and quasi-contract against a Pennsylvania corporation.

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Shuler v. Wood was an action in tort in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee against two Pennsylvania corporations.

Conflict Of Laws -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Elvin E. Overton

Vanderbilt Law Review

A well known text book on Conflict of Laws concludes its opening section with the sentence, "In brief, a Conflict of Laws problem arises whenever a foreign element gets into a legal question." If this definition is accepted, there were about twenty cases of Conflicts of Laws decided during the survey period, in the sense that foreign elements were shown to exist in the facts which appeared. In another sense, there were other cases in which it must be suspected that substantial "other state" contacts existed, but in which no express mention appears of such facts. On the other hand, …

Conflict Of Laws -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

Martin v. Martin' involved a bill in equity by a wife to set aside a divorce decree as fraudulently obtained by the husband. The parties had been domiciled in Pennsylvania. While in Tennessee as a member of the armed forces the husband obtained the divorce in the state. He was subsequently transferred outside the United States. Complainant's bill to set the decree aside for fraud was sustained by the chancellor, defendant being served by publication. Defendant then made a special appearance to contest the jurisdiction of the court and appealed from an adverse ruling.

The Supreme Court held that there …

Conflict Of Laws -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, John W. Wade

Vanderbilt Law Review

Personal Jurisdiction: In State v. Perry, the Tennessee Department of Public Welfare, which had paid sums for the support of dependents of certain nonresidents, brought an action against the nonresidents for reimbursement and for an order to pay money in the future. No personal service was had on the defendants, and the court held that the Tennessee statute does not authorize the court "to enter a personal judgment against a non-resident husband-father upon the ex parte petition, when that husband-father is not personally before the Court, and afforded no opportunity to be heard.' It correctly implied that such a proceeding …

Utility Of The Jurisdictional Principle In A Policy Centered Conflict Of Laws, Edwin W. Briggs

Vanderbilt Law Review

Various recent studies' have confirmed the suspicion that courts continue to find it necessary to approve and rely heavily on the principle of "legislative jurisdiction" residing in some one state, even though they do not often admit it in so many words. Since the discussion of the problem by courts generally assumes that the single question in conflicts is choice of law, and since one of the most influential writers on the subject in recent times has denied the validity of the jurisdictional principle at the common law as a means of solving a conflicts problem, a study giving further …

Assignments Of Accounts Receivable And The Conflict Of Laws Under The Bankruptcy Act, Eugene J.T. Flanagan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Under our system of government there is no constitutional requirement that the laws of the various states be uniform. On some points there are considerable differences between the laws of sister states. Such is the case with respect to the test for priority of right among successive assignees of an account receivable. This difference becomes of great importance when a multi-state transaction raises the question of the choice of the applicable law.

Fundamentally the problem is whether the jurisdiction in question follows the rule of Dearle v. Hall,' or the so-called American rule. The former establishes the order of precedence …