Law Commons^™

Editors' Introduction, Journal Editor

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The following symposium contains articles based on papers presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools, Section on Conflict of Laws, in New Orleans, Louisiana, January 6, 1995. The Section's program, Conflict of Laws in the Global Village: International Conflicts Issues for the General Course in Conflict of Laws, was organized by Professor Harold G. Maier of Vanderbilt University Law School, who was Chair of the Conflicts Section. The program was designed to identify and discuss current international conflict of laws issues that might fruitfully be explored in the general course on Conflict of Laws.

Why Teach International Family Law In Conflicts?, William L. Reynolds

Faculty Scholarship

[The author] sets forth a challenge to conflicts professors: to teach international family law in their conflict of laws classes. At present, many conflicts professors avoid teaching international family law, in part because the study of this subject is complicated by several statutes addressing particularly difficult issues. Ignorning international family law is unwise, because many United States citizens and lawyers are likely to confront such problems.

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 …

The 1994 Inter-American Convention On The Law Applicable To International Contracts, And Trends For The 1990s, Harold S. Burman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article emphasizes the importance of teaching transnational materials in the conflict of laws class. The rapid development of the "global village" has increased the importance and need for law students to understand how conflicts issues are resolved throughout the world. A failure to address transnational issues will leave students unprepared for the world, especially the legal marketplace, that they will enter after law school.

The author suggests that the traditional study of public international law, regarding the law governing relations between states, as well as the law between states and intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, is insufficient for contemporary law …

Why Teach International Family Law In Conflicts?, William L. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Reynolds sets forth a challenge to conflicts professors: to teach international family law in their conflict of laws classes. At present, many conflicts professors avoid teaching international family law, in part because the study of this subject is complicated by several statutes addressing particularly difficult issues. Ignoring international family law is unwise, because many United States citizens and lawyers are likely to confront such problems.

Moreover, this Article suggests several additional reasons for including international family law in the general conflicts course. First, litigants entangled in divorce and custody proceedings with international complications face high financial and emotional costs; …

The Internationalization Of Contractual Conflicts Law, Patrick J. Borchers

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Professor Borchers maintains that United States conflict of laws rules regarding contracts have long had an international character. This Article reviews the development of contractual conflicts law and examines how, through Joseph Story's treatises, the United States law in this area assumed an international perspective.

These international influences have played and will increasingly play an important role in the development of U.S. contractual conflicts rules. This influence can be seen in both choice-of-forum and choice-of-law agreements. Both have been upheld by U.S. courts initially in international cases, which presented starker contrasts in choice of law or choice of forum. Once …