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 Flight To New York: An Empirical Study Of Choice Of Law And Choice Of Forum Clauses In Publicly-Held Companies' Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey P. Miller

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We study choice of law and choice of forum in a data set of 2,882 contracts contained as exhibits in Form 8-K filings by reporting corporations over a six month period in 2002 for twelve types of contracts and a seven month period in 2002 for merger contracts. These material contracts likely are carefully negotiated by sophisticated parties who are well-informed about the contract terms. They therefore provide evidence of efficient ex ante solutions to contracting problems. In prior work examining merger contracts, acquiring firms incorporated in Delaware tended to select Delaware law or a Delaware forum to govern disputes …

Do Juries Add Value? Evidence From An Empirical Study Of Jury Trial Waiver Clauses In Large Corporate Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey P. Miller

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

We study jury trial waivers in a data set of 2,816 contracts contained as exhibits in Form 8-K filings by reporting corporations during 2002. Because these contracts are associated with events deemed material to the financial condition of SEC-reporting firms, they likely are carefully negotiated by sophisticated, well-informed parties and thus provide presumptive evidence about the value associated with the availability of jury trials. A minority of contracts, about 20 percent, waived jury trials. An additional 9 percent of contracts had arbitration clauses that effectively preclude jury trials though the reason for arbitration clauses need not specifically relate to juries. …

Ex Ante Choices Of Law And Forum: An Empirical Analysis Of Corporate Merger Agreements, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey P. Miller

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Legal scholars have focused much attention on the incorporation puzzle—why business corporations so heavily favor Delaware as the site of incorporation. This paper suggests that the focus on the incorporation decision overlooks a broader but intimately related set of questions. The choice of Delaware as a situs of incorporation is, effectively, a choice of law decision. A company electing to charter in Delaware selects Delaware law (and authorizes Delaware courts to adjudicate legal disputes) regarding the allocation of governance authority within the firm. In this sense, the incorporation decision is fundamentally similar to any setting in which a company selects …