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Forum Selection Agreements In The Federal Courts After Carnival Cruise: A Proposal For Congressional Reform, Patrick J. Borchers

Washington Law Review

Once the object of American judicial loathing, forum selection agreements recently have enjoyed a far more favored status. Forum selection agreements promote certainty in commercial relationships and reduce transaction costs arising from litigation of threshold issues such as personal jurisdiction and venue. In 1988, in Stewart Organization, Inc. v. Ricoh, the Supreme Court confused several central issues, including whether state or federal law governs enforcement in diversity actions, the mechanism for enforcing forum selection agreements, and the consequences of seeking to enforce an agreement by transferring the matter from one federal court to another. More recently, in Carnival Cruise Lines, …