Law Commons^™

Punishment But Not A Penalty? Punitive Damages Are Impermissible Under Foreign Substantive Law, Paul A. Hoversten

Michigan Law Review

It is a well-established principle that no court applies the penal laws of another sovereign. But what exactly is a penal law? According to Judge Cardozo, a penal law effects “vindication of the public justice” rather than “reparation to one aggrieved.” Although courts have historically treated punitive damages as a purely civil remedy, that attitude has shifted over time. Modern American punitive damages serve not to compensate the plaintiff but to punish the defendant on behalf of the whole community. Therefore, when courts rely on foreign substantive law to impose punitive damages, they arguably violate the well-established principle that no …

The Myth Of Choice Of Law: Rethinking Conflicts, Kermit Roosevelt Iii

Michigan Law Review

Choice of law is a mess. That much has become a truism. It is a "dismal swamp," a morass of confusion, a body of doctrine "killed by a realism intended to save it," and now "universally said to be a disaster." One way to demonstrate its tribulations would be to look at the academic dissensus and the hopelessly underdeterminative Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws. Another would be to examine the Supreme Court's abdication of the task of articulating constitutional constraints on state choice-of-law rules. This article will do both. At the outset, though, I want to suggest that one …

"But Whoever Treasures Freedom…": The Right To Travel And Extraterritorial Abortions, Seth F. Kreimer

Michigan Law Review

In a prior article, I addressed the problem of extraterritorial abortions under the assumption that the federal constitutional right of reproductive choice would be repudiated by the Supreme Court on Justice Scalia's theory that such rights lack sufficiently deep roots in the history and traditions surrounding the framing of the Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment. I argued there that a constitutional methodology that relied on traditions and expectations of the Framers would provide a strong basis for concluding that the Constitution imposes severe limits on states' power to project their moralities extraterritorially. If Justice Scalia is serious about a regard …

Interstate Preemption: The Right To Travel, The Right To Life, And The Right To Die, Lea Brilmayer

Michigan Law Review

State laws differ, and they differ on issues of tremendous importance to the ways that we conduct our lives. Abortion and the right to die are two issues on which state law intersects with deeply held moral convictions, and on which state laws vary. With so much hanging in the balance, it is not surprising that those who find themselves outvoted or outmaneuvered in local political processes sometimes seek a legal climate more compatible with their beliefs about human decency and dignity. The right to "vote with one's feet" - to travel or move to another state and trade a …

Conflict Of Constitutions? No Thanks: A Response To Professors Brilmayer And Kreimer, Gerald L. Neuman

Michigan Law Review

This colloquy was organized around the unpleasant hypothesis that the Supreme Court would overrule Roe v. Wade and that Congress would not fill the resulting void with federal legislation. The abortion debate would then move to the states, where local majorities could enact their own resolutions. If the local majorities were large enough, they could even write their local resolutions into their state constitutions. The contrasting state constitutions that could result might then replicate the comparativists' current juxtaposition between the U.S. Constitution and the constitutions of Germany and Ireland. In some states, prohibition of abortion would be constitutionally required, while …

Teaching Conflicts, Improving The Odds, Gene R. Shreve

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Conflict of Laws: Cases, Materials and Problems by David H. Vernon, Louise Weinberg, William L. Reynolds, and William M. Richman

Conflict Of Laws: Foundations And Future Directions, Craig Y. Allison

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Conflict of Laws: Foundations and Future Directions by Lea Brilmayer

Conflict-Of-Laws Rules By Treaty: Recognition Of Companies In A Regional Market, Eric Stein

Michigan Law Review

The term "recognition" has many meanings. We speak in family law of a "recognized child," in public international law of recognizing a newly emerged state or newly installed government, and in private international law (conflict of laws) of recognizing foreign judgments or legal persons. In both public and private international law, it is the nation-state that grants or denies recognition. In public international law, the "recognizing" nation-state expresses "a value judgment acknowledging that a given fact situation is in accord with the exigencies of the international legal order." In private international law (or conflict of laws), on the other hand, …

Choice Of Law In Secured Personal Property Transactions: The Impact Of Article 9 Of The Uniform Commercial Code, Russell J. Weintraub

Michigan Law Review

It is likely that, in view of the adoption in forty-nine states of the Uniform Commercial Code (Code), particularly of article 9 dealing with secured transactions, the incidence of interstate conflict-of- laws problems concerning commercial transactions in personal property will be greatly reduced. The reason for this anticipated reduction is that the Code creates uniformity in the applicable law governing the rights and duties both between the secured creditor and the debtor and between the secured creditor and third parties who challenge the secured creditor's right to enjoy his security interest.

Cramton & Currie: Conflict Of Laws: Cases--Comments--Questions, Robert A. Leflar

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Conflict of Laws: Cases--Comments--Questions by Roger C. Cramton and David P. Currie

Fraudulent Conveyances In The Conflict Of Laws: Easy Cases May Make Bad Law, Albert A. Ehrenzweig, Peter K. Westen

Michigan Law Review

It has been said that hard cases often make bad law. The recent decision by the New York Court of Appeals in James v. Powell suggests that easy cases, too, may make bad law-especially where a scholarly judge ventures beyond the demands of the case before him.

The Uniform Probate Code And The International Will, William F. Fratcher

Michigan Law Review

Emily Graham left her assets in England when she married a French naval officer and went to France to live with him. After her husband died, Emily announced that she was returning to England for the rest of her life and bundled her children and baggage aboard a channel ferry. Before the ferry cleared French waters she became ill and was taken ashore at another French port. While waiting impatiently to recover sufficiently for a final return to England, Emily executed a will of her English assets in the form prescribed by English law, that is, in writing, signed by …

Government Contracts-Adoption Of Uniform Commercial Code As The Applicable Federal Law In An Action For Breach Of Government Contract-United States V. Wegematic Corp., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Appellant contracted to supply the Federal Reserve Board with a "truly revolutionary" electronic digital computing system. After twice requesting postponement of the delivery date, appellant informed the Board that delivery under the terms of the contract would be impracticable because of unforeseen engineering difficulties that would require at least one year and one million dollars to overcome. Appellant asked for cancellation of the contract, but the Board refused and brought a suit for damages. Both parties conceded that federal law governed the action; appellant, however, argued that section 2-615 of the Uniform Commercial Code (Code) should be adopted as the …

Federal Rule 44.1 And The "Fact" Approach To Determining Foreign Law: Death Knell For A Die-Hard Doctrine, Arthur R. Miller

Michigan Law Review

The objective of this article is to analyze Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 44.1, which was developed as part of the reforms of the last decade and became effective on July 1, 1966 and to assess its capacity to rationalize the process of determining foreign law in the federal courts. What follows is an excursion through the past doctrine and into the probable future treatment of foreign law in the federal courts, an exploration of the interrelationship between the new Rule and other phases of federal civil procedure, and an analysis of the prospect that the Rule's effectiveness may be …

Conflict Of Laws-Public Policy Used To Apply Forum Law To Joint Bank Accounts Of Foreign-Domiciliaries Wyatt V. Fulrath, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Duke and Duchess of Arion, nationals and domiciliaries of Spain, neither of whom had ever been to New York, deposited community property consisting of cash and securities in several New York banks. In establishing these accounts, the Duke and Duchess either expressly agreed in writing that the New York law of survivorship would apply to their accounts or signed standard bank survivorship forms which incorporated the survivorship laws of that state. After her husband's death, the Duchess made the entire amount on deposit in New York subject to her will. Following the Duchess' death and during probate of her …

The Comity Doctrine, Introduction, Kurt H. Adelmann

Michigan Law Review

Hessel Yntema's Essay on the Comity Doctrine, published in a Festschrift in Europe, deals with the origin and the meaning-or meanings-of a doctrine which has had a truly extraordinary impact on American conflicts law. For this reason and because of the stature of the author, the Essay is entitled to a special place in our literature on the Conflict of Laws. The Michigan Law Review has decided, as a memorial to the great Michigan Scholar, to reprint the Essay so that it may be more easily accessible.

Written for other purposes, the Essay does not discuss the place which the …

The Comity Doctrine, Hessel E. Yntema

Michigan Law Review

The doctrine of comity, as developed in the Netherlands during the last quarter of the Seventeenth Century, for the first time posed in stark simplicity the basic dilemma of conflicts law in modem times to mediate between the pretensions of territorial sovereignty and the needs of international commerce. As Ulrik Huber, the most influential exponent of the doctrine, observed: "Exempla, quibus utemur, ad juris privati species maxime quidem pertinebunt, sed judicium de illis unice juris publici rationibus constat, & exinde definiri debent.'' ["The examples which we shall use belong principally to the category of private law but their treatment …

Extraterritorial Application Of Penal Legislation, B. J. George Jr.

Michigan Law Review

One of the most difficult words in the legal lexicon to delineate is the term "jurisdiction"; it is equally difficult to relate this term to the concept of "venue." The term "jurisdiction" is constantly invoked by courts in a variety of contexts, some relating to geography, some to governmental and judicial structure, some to legislative or judicial power, some to persons, and some to procedures. Thus, it is difficult to discern a common thread of meaning or a consistent pattern of application from the cases in which the word appears.

The Interstate Child And Uniform Legislation: A Plea For Extra-Litigious Proceedings, Albert A. Ehrenzweig

Michigan Law Review

When I originally offered my re-interpretation of prevailing practice, I did not feel that it would be expedient to make suggestions for alternative solutions because I was then convinced that the courts were doing the very best they could with the procedural tools at their disposal and that there was little hope for an improvement of those tools. However, there is such hope now, and the time has come to help in the search for new answers. In the following discussion, I shall comment on two current proposals for uniform and federal legislation and shall attempt to formulate a tentative …

Federal Law Held To Govern Effect Of The Release Of A Joint Tortfeasor In Private Antitrust Suit-Winchester Drive-In Theatre, Inc. V. Twentieth Century Fox Film Co., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Private antitrust litigation occasionally raises the question of whether state or federal law should be applied to determine the effect of the release of a joint tortfeasor. When federal law is applied, as it was in Winchester Drive-In Theatre, Inc. v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Co., there remains the necessity of formulating a rule of federal law, since there appears to be no established federal rule governing releases in antitrust suits.

An Inquiry Into The Utility Of "Domicile" As A Concept In Conflicts Analysis, Russell J. Weintraub

Michigan Law Review

No attempt is made here to conduct an exhaustive case study of any one particular area in which the concept of "domicile" is used as a tool for analysis in the conflict of laws. A number of thorough and useful studies have been made in narrow areas and are cited at appropriate places in the body of this article. Instead, this article will review the use of "domicile" in analyzing certain typical conflicts problems, particularly its use as the contact or pointing word in choice of law rules concerning the testate and intestate distribution of movables, and, as is newly …

The Qualitative Governmental Interest Analysis: New York's Conflict Of Laws Rules In Transition-George V. Douglas Aircraft , Co., Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The traditional choice of law rule for torts is that the law of the place of wrong is determinative of all substantive issues. This rule has been frequently criticized and has been rejected by the Restatement (Second), Conflict of Laws, and by a few courts, particularly those of New York. The successor to the traditional approach, however, has not been determined. Under the view of the Restatement (Second), the applicable substantive law is that law of the state which has the most significant relationship with the occurrence and with the parties. Although a qualitative approach would seem possible under …

In Personam Jurisdiction Over Nonresident Manufacturers In Product Liability Actions, Harry B. Cummins

Michigan Law Review

A wide divergence of opinion exists regarding the wisdom as well as the constitutionality of extensive jurisdiction through the use of liberally drafted and construed "long-arm" statutes. Hesitance may result from a fear of burdening a defendant with the inconvenience and expense of a foreign suit brought against him solely for the purpose of harassment. While this comment does not advocate the extent to which a court should assert the jurisdictional powers conferred on it by a given "long-arm" provision, it examines the scope of jurisdiction constitutionally permissible over nonresident manufacturers in product liability cases with a view toward formulating …

Toward Supremacy Of Treaty-Constitution By Judicial Fiat: On The Margin Of The Case, Eric Stein

Michigan Law Review

Increased interdependence of states in modem times has shaken the nineteenth century doctrines of extreme dualism and positivism. These doctrines would build an impenetrable wall between the international and national legal orders; they would elevate the state to the position of exclusive actor and deny the individual any standing in the international legal order; and, in the interpretation of a rule of law, they would exclude any regard for the political, economic, and social context in which the rule is applied.

Babcock V. Jackson: The Transition From The Lex Loci Delicti Rule To The Dominant Contacts Approach, Arthur M. Sherwood

Michigan Law Review

This comment will examine the lex loci delicti rule and the judicial transition from it to the new "dominant contacts" approach enunciated in Babcock, with some attempt to consider unresolved difficulties in the newer approach to choice of tort law.

Currie: Selected Essays On The Conflict Of Laws, Elliott E. Cheatham

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Selected Essays on the Conflict of Laws. By Brainerd Currie.