Conflict of Laws Commons^™

Joseph Story, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

Joseph Story (1779-1845) was one of the greatest and most influential American lawyers of all time. Both as a Supreme Court Justice and as a professor at Harvard Law School, his work and thought were, and still are, of great importance. Today’s private international law would look different without him, both in the United States and in the rest of the world. At the same time, his approach to the field cannot be properly understood unless placed within his broader work on law, and the specific American background against which it was developed.

Breaking The Silence: The Veterinarian’S Duty To Report, Martine Lachance

Animal Sentience

Animals, like children and disabled elders, are not only the subjects of abuse, but they are unable to report and protect themselves from it. Veterinarians, like human physicians, are often the ones to become aware of the abuse and the only ones in a position to report it when their human clients are unwilling to do so. This creates a conflict between professional confidentiality to the client and the duty to protect the victim and facilitate prosecution when the law has been broken. I accordingly recommend that veterinarian associations make reporting of abuse mandatory.

U.S. Discovery And Foreign Blocking Statutes, Vivian Grosswald Curran

Articles

What is the reality between U.S. discovery and the foreign blocking statutes that impede it in France and other civil law states? How should we understand their interface at a time when companies are multinational in composition as well as in their areas of commerce? U.S. courts grapple with the challenge of understanding why they should adhere to strictures that seem to compromise constitutional or quasi-constitutional rights of American plaintiffs, while French and German lawyers and judges struggle with the challenges U.S. discovery poses to values of privacy and fair trial procedure in their legal systems. This article seeks to …

Comparative Law And Private International Law, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Jurisdiction, Foundations, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Wächter, Carl Georg Von, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

Carl Georg von Wächter (1797-1880) was once considered 'one of the greatest German jurists of all times’, but was all but forgotten in the 20th century, despite an excellent dissertation on his work in private international law by Nikolaus Sandmann. In private international law, he is known mainly for his critique of earlier theories, in particular the theory of statutes. Positively, Wächter is mainly (and not accurately) known as a proponent of a strong preference for the lex fori and as such mainly presented in opposition to Friedrich Carl von Savigny’s theory (Savigny, Friedrich Carl von). Only recently has there …

Could A State Court's Selection Of Another State's Substantive Law Exceed Constitutional Limitations On Choice Of Law?, Charles Thatcher

Charles Thatcher

A Battlefield Map For Nfl V. Insurance Industry Re: Concussion Liabilities, Christopher French

Christopher C. French

Implications For The Future Of Global Data Security And Privacy: The Territorial Application Of The Stored Communications Act And The Microsoft Case, Russell Hsiao

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Personal Jurisdiction Based On The Local Effects Of Intentional Misconduct, Allan Erbsen

William & Mary Law Review

Intentional misconduct frequently has extraterritorial consequences. Terrorist attacks, toxic pollution, civil rights violations, and other intentional torts can cause harm within a state despite originating outside the state. Those harms raise a vexing constitutional question: when do the local effects of intentional wrongdoing authorize personal jurisdiction over a defendant whose conduct occurred outside the forum? The answer has several significant implications. Granting or denying jurisdiction can support or undermine regulatory interests by allocating power between states, imposes burdens on the parties that can impede access to justice, and alters risk assessments that shape both socially desirable and socially destructive behavior.

Beals V. Saldanha: Striking The Comity Balance Anew, Janet Walker

Janet Walker

With the willingness to enforce foreign default judgments against defendants who did not consent to the jurisdiction of the foreign court and were not local persons there, Canadian courts may need to reconsider the narrowly framed defences so as to strike the comity balance anew.

The Charter's Relevance To Private Litigation: Does Dolphin Deliver?, Brian Slattery

Brian Slattery

The author critically examines the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Local 580 v. Dolphin Delivery Ltd. This case holds that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms only applies to the relations between government and private persons and not to relations between private persons alone, with two exceptions. The author argues that the first exception - when a private person invokes a statute, rather than the common law, against another private person - is untenable because both the common law and the droit civil are grounded in legislative instruments, respectively …

A Framework For A Formal Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism: The Kiss Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) And Other Guiding Principles, Charles W. Mooney Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

Given the ongoing work on a multilateral restructuring process for sovereign debt in the UN, consideration of the content and implementation of a sovereign debt restructuring mechanism (SDRM) is timely. The framework and content of the SDRM proposed here differs from earlier proposals in several important respects. For the classification and supermajority voting of claims in the approval a restructuring plan, it would mimic the structure and operation of the model collective action clauses (Model CACs) proposed by the International Capital Markets Association. Restructuring under a qualified sovereign debt restructuring law (QSDRL) would be guided by four principles: (i) observe …

The Corporate Conspiracy Vacuum (Formerly "Corporate Conspiracy: How Not Calling A Conspiracy A Conspiracy Is Warping The Law On Corporate Wrongdoing"), J.S. Nelson

J.S. Nelson

Measuring State Compliance With The Right To Education Using Indicators: A Case Study Of Colombia’S Obligations Under The Icescr, Sital Kalantry, Jocelyn Getgen, Steven A. Koh

Sital Kalantry

The right to education is often referred to as a “multiplier right” because its enjoyment enhances other human rights. It is enumerated in several international instruments, but it is codified in greatest detail in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Despite its importance, the right to education has received limited attention from scholars, practitioners, and international and regional human rights bodies as compared to other economic, social and cultural rights (ECSRs). In this Article, we propose a methodology that utilizes indicators to measure treaty compliance with the right to education. Indicators are essential to measuring compliance …

Breach Of Agreement Versus Vexatious, Oppressive And Unconscionable Conduct: Clarifying Their Relationship In The Law Of Anti-Suit Injunctions, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Cases warranting the grant of an anti-suit injunction can be divided into three main categories: breach of agreement, vexatious, oppressive, or unconscionable conduct, and abuse of process. A series of Singapore cases have demonstrated that the boundaries between the first two categories are ambiguous in Singapore law. This ambiguity reflects a lack of clarity about the principles underlying anti-suit injunctions and creates uncertainty as to the applicable analysis for each category. This article argues that the two categories should be distinct in kind, with both categories remaining part of the court’s equitable jurisdiction. Such an approach will provide a good …

Putting The Cart Before The Horse: A Doomed Constitutional Strategy For Negotiating The T-Tip, Emanuela Matei

Emanuela A. Matei

No abstract provided.

Rights Of State Prisoners - Federal Court Intervention In State Prison Administration; Jones V. Wittenberg, Ronald L. Collins

Akron Law Review

The path to federal court intervention into state prison administration has been a tortuous and rocky one.... Jones v. Wittenberg carries federal court intervention into state prison administration to new lengths. Until more basic and lasting changes are made on the part of society and the states, such intervention seems to be the best chance for ameliorating conditions in our state penal systems.

Re-Imagining The Principle Of National Treatment: Addressing Private International Law Issues In Copyright Infringement In The Internet Era, Ragavi Ramesh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the principle of National Treatment enshrined in international copyright treaties to address private international law issues in copyright infringement occurring over the Internet. The thesis provides a brief overview of private international law and analyzed the principle of National Treatment as a private international law rule determining jurisdiction and applicable law. The primary case studies in the thesis include an analysis of the rules adopted in copyright disputes by courts in England, France, the United States and Canada in the pre- and post-Internet contexts, as well as a discussion of the European Union as an exception to …

Developing An International Carbon Tax Regime, Steven Specht

Steven Specht

As atmospheric CO2 remains in the range of 400 ppm, it is necessary to find new international coordination to deal with climate change. The best way forward is an international regime of harmonized domestic carbon taxes. By agreeing to a minimum amount of taxation on domestic, point-source producers, money can be set aside for adaptation costs and alternative means of energy production. Finally, such a plan will overcome the problem of non-participation of countries in agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. As this is a treaty dealing with economics and trade, countries can place taxes on imports of non-participatory countries under …