Conflict of Laws Commons^™

Abstracts, Mary Jane Plumer

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.

What Of The World Court Now?, C. Sumner Lobingier

Michigan Law Review

The Permanent Court of International Justice was expressly provided for in the League of Nations Covenant (Article XIV) of 1919 and the "Statute" creating it was drafted by an advisory committee of the League, meeting at the Hague, and opened for signature in the following year. By 1921 the ratifications of twenty-eight states put it into effect and the Court was formally opened, with a full quorum of judges, on February 15 (Bentham's birthday) 1922. For nearly twenty years it continued to function and its sessions were suspended only by the presence of the Nazi invaders of the Netherlands.

Foreign Exchange Restrictions And Public Policy In The Conflict Of Laws: Part Ii, Evsey S. Rashba

Michigan Law Review

Political Laws have been the subject of a much disputed doctrine. It has been stated by Dicey, and by other authoritative writers in various countries, that a court has no jurisdiction to entertain an action for the enforcement of a "political law" of a foreign state. The term "political law" is not limited to the field of public law. It is, of course, only exceptionally that rules governing the relations between a state and its citizens are given extraterritorial effect. The doctrine goes further. It holds that rules which are technically a part of private law, but which are designed …

Foreign Exchange Restrictions And Public Policy In The Conflict Of Laws, Evsey S. Rashba

Michigan Law Review

The general movement towards national economic planning and away from the freedom of the liberal age has brought about unprecedented state interference with international trade. These interferences have vastly increased during the past twenty-five years and have grown at a rapid pace during the last decade.

Conflict Of Laws-Refugee Government Property Conservation Decrees In The Courts Of The United States, Robert D. Ulrich

Michigan Law Review

In the Feuchtwanger case, a French government decree of April 24, 1940, as amended May 10, 1940, defined as prohibited exportation of capital "the acts of allowing to remain outside of French territory, or keeping in foreign exchange or foreign currencies, or of not collecting within the territories fixed by decree or instruction of the Minister of Finance, all or part of the proceeds of the exportation of merchandise, or of the remuneration for services, as well as all or part of all proceeds or income abroad."

In May 1939, plaintiff, then a resident of France, purchased a number of …

Conflict Of Laws Relating To Installment Sales, Robert E. Lee

Michigan Law Review

The most perplexing problem in the field of installment contracts probably occurs when property sold by a title-retaining instrument (conditional sale, chattel mortgage, or bailment lease) in one state is removed to another state where rights of creditors of, or purchasers from, the buyer attach. Inasmuch as the possession of the article has been permitted to be in the buyer, so that outwardly, and with nothing more, he is the apparent owner, the important question arises as to whose rights are higher, the secret owner (the conditional seller, the chattel mortgagee, or the bailor) or the creditor of, or purchaser …

Developments In The Conflict Of Laws, 1902-1942, Ernest G. Lorenzen

Michigan Law Review

The writer's interest in the conflict of laws coextends substantially with the life of the Michigan Law Review. This may be some excuse for attempting to trace some of the developments in this field in the intervening years. Let us consider first what has happened in this country and thereupon what has occurred in the rest of the world.

Congressional Enactment Of Uniform Judicial Notice Act, Lawrence E. Hartwig

Michigan Law Review

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform Laws approved in 1936 the Uniform Judicial Notice of Foreign Law Act, which has since been adopted by fourteen states. This act was drafted to make uniform a legislative movement of the past twelve years proposing to change two rules of the common law. One is the rule that a state court will not notice the law of sister states in the United States; and the other is the rule that the determination of such law shall be made by the jury and not by the judge. Accordingly, the Uniform Act provides (1) …

Conflict Of Laws - Workmen's Compensation - Local Statute As A Defense To A Local Cause Of Action, John C. Johnston

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff resided and was employed in Texas as the manager of a local store owned by a corporation which operated a chain of stores in various states. While visiting the main office of his employer in Illinois, he was injured through the negligence of the defendant taxicab company. After applying for and receiving compensation from his employer under the Workmen's Compensation Law of Texas, plaintiff then brought action in Illinois against defendant to recover damages for his personal injuries. Under the Workmen's Compensation Act of Texas an employee who has received compensation under the act may bring an action against …

Federal Courts - Conflict Of Laws - Duty Of Federal Court To Apply State Conflict Of Laws Rules, Spencer E. Irons

Michigan Law Review

In a suit on a contract brought in the United States District Court in Delaware, based on diversity of citizenship, the court allowed interest costs on the basis of the Civil Practice Act of New York where the contract was made. The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the ruling upon the ground that it was the best rule, without regard to the Delaware conflicts law. On certiorari, held reversed, on the ground that the doctrine of Erie Railroad v. Tompkins prohibits such an independent determination by the federal court of conflict of laws rules. Klaxon Co. …

The Revision Of The Treaties Of Montevideo On The Law Of Conflicts, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Law Review

In its issue of July 1940, the Revista Juridica Argentina of Buenos Aires has published the new "Tratados de Derecho Internacional Privado" of Montevideo concluded in 1939 and 1940. We are grateful to this review for apprising us of a significant event in the field of international codification.

Substance And Procedure In The Conflict Of Laws, Edgar H. Ailes

Michigan Law Review

It is perhaps the most inveterate doctrine of the conflict of laws that all questions of procedure in a given instance are governed by the lex fori, or the law of the court invoked, regardless of the law under which the substantive rights of the parties accrued. For seven centuries, at least, courts and lawyers have broadly stated or assumed to be axiomatic the rule that substantive rights are fixed and immutable whilst the procedural devices by which such rights may be vindicated and enforced depend solely upon the law of the forum.

Municipal Corporations - Labor Law - Conflict Of Municipal Ordinance With State Statute, Kenneth J. Nordstrom

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a member of a machinist's union, was indicted for violation of a city ordinance which prohibited peaceful picketing except by employees employed three months or more at a place of business and who had been so employed within sixty days of the commencement of the picketing. A state statute modeled on the Norris-LaGuardia Act authorized the giving of publicity of labor disputes and forbade the issuing of injunctions for designated types of labor controversies. Held, that the ordinance was void and that the defendant was entitled to picket peacefully a company which had never employed him, but which …

Municipal Corporations - Home Rule Amendments - Conflict Between Local And State Law, William L. Howland

Michigan Law Review

The petitioner, on behalf of the city of Akron, applied for a writ of mandamus to compel the board of health of the city to apply the municipal civil service regulations to the employees of the board. In 1912, Ohio had adopted a so-called "home rule amendment" to its constitution, under authority of which the city had formulated its charter. By statute, each city in Ohio constitutes a city health district, and the officers thereof are appointed by the mayor of the city with the consent of the city council. The state statutes make no express reference to civil service …

Conflict Of Laws-Public Policy Of The Forum A Bar To Wife's Action Against Husband For Negligent Injury, Oscar Freedenberg

Michigan Law Review

Husband and wife were residents of state A, in which a personal tort action between the spouses was not recognized. The wife sued in state A for injuries sustained by reason of her husband's negligent operation of an automobile in state B. Notwithstanding the wife had a right of action under the lex loci delicti, held, that the public policy of the forum is an effective bar to an action by the wife against her husband for personal injuries. (In the record of the case it appears that the defendant in interest was an insurance company.) Kircher …

Constitutional Law - Twenty-First Amendment - Validity Of State Statute Discriminating Against Liquor Imports, Benjamin Guille Cox

Michigan Law Review

A Michigan statute prohibited local dealers from selling beer manufactured in a state designated by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, acting pursuant to statutory standards, as one which by its laws discriminated against Michigan-made beer. Because Indiana was one of ten states so designated, an Indiana brewing company filed a bill in the federal court to enjoin enforcement of the Michigan statute as unconstitutional under the interstate commerce, equal protection and due process clauses of the Federal Constitution. Held, that the bill should be dismissed, since the statute, even though discriminating among importers, was a valid enactment under the …

Constitutional Law - Federal Courts - Law To Be Applied In Cases Of Diversity Of Citizenship - Swift V. Tyson Overrule, Frank B. Stone

Michigan Law Review

A recent personal injury case, Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, arose in the federal district court, based upon diversity of citizenship, in which the defendant urged that state judicial decisions of Pennsylvania, the locus delicti, imposed no liability on it for negligence to trespassers. The plaintiff denied that such was the Pennsylvania law and alternatively replied that the issue of law was one to be determined by the federal court without regard to the law of Pennsylvania. On April 25, 1938, a verdict for the plaintiff was unanimously set aside by the Supreme Court. Two members, Justices Butler and McReynolds, …

Conflict Of Laws - Guest Motorists -How Far Is The Lex Loci Delicti Controlling In The Forum?, M. M. Howard

Michigan Law Review

Before the advent of the "guest statutes," the decisions of all but a very few states recognized no degrees of negligence and measured the duty of the automobile host towards his non-paying guest by due care under all the circumstances-the "ordinary negligence" rule. In the few exceptional states, the decisions required the plaintiff to prove "gross," "wilful," or "wanton" negligence on the part of his host in order to maintain his action. And within the last decade nineteen states have adopted "guest statutes" which, with varying language, adopt the "gross negligence" rule. Since the rule of the lex loci delicti …

Conflict Of Laws - Renvoi Theory - Conflicts Restatement, Royal E. Thompson

Michigan Law Review

The case of University of Chicago v. Dater, recently decided by the Michigan Supreme Court, contains interesting and unusual problems in the field of conflict of laws. The University of Chicago had agreed to loan money to a Michigan resident, to be secured by Chicago realty. The note and trust mortgage were sent by plaintiff to a Michigan bank, as agent, which procured the signatures of defendant and her husband, and sent the papers back to plaintiff's agent in Chicago. Some question as to title to the land arose, followed by further negotiations, and nearly a month after the …

Curbing The Supreme Court-State Experiences And Federal Proposals, Katherine B. Fite, Louis Baruch Rubinstein

Michigan Law Review

The avalanche of proposals introduced in the last session of Congress seeking to curb the power of the Supreme Court to declare legislative acts unconstitutional and President Roosevelt's recent message to Congress on the judiciary have focused attention on the problem of the function of that Court in our governmental system.

This article does not take sides in the controversy. Its purpose is merely to review the developments in the four states, Colorado, Ohio, North Dakota and Nebraska, which by amendments to their constitutions have sought to place curbs on their supreme courts, and also to classify the proposals which …

Conflict Of Laws -Enforceability Of Tax Judgment In Courts Of A Sister State - Full Faith And Credit

Michigan Law Review

A court of competent jurisdiction in Wisconsin gave the plaintiff a judgment against the defendants an Illinois corporation, for truces levied by Wisconsin upon income earned in that state. A federal district court in Illinois, relying on a theory that one state should not undertake to enforce the revenue laws of a sister state, dismissed an action on the judgment instituted by the plaintiff. The plaintiff appealed. Held, principles of comity and the "full faith and credit" clause of the Federal Constitution require that the action be entertained. Milwaukee County v. M. E. White Co., 296 U.S. 268, …

Conflict Of Laws-Jurisdiction Over Nonresident Carriers As Limited By Doctrine Of Unreasonable Burden On Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

There is little question today but that a foreign corporation may be subject to suit and a personal judgment in a state where it is doing business if service has been had upon a proper agent of the corporation, designated by law or otherwise. There may be consider able question as to what constitutes "doing business." The fact that the business carried on by a corporation is wholly interstate in character will not prevent that corporation from being subject to service in the same manner as though it were doing intrastate business as well a It also seems clear that …

The Federal Spending Power And State Rights, John W. Holmes

Michigan Law Review

The cry for constitutional change, that dwindled to a small voice with the repeal of Prohibition, has risen to a new pitch following decapitation of the AAA by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Butler. Burgeoning in Congress is a portentous, if unorganized, attack upon the Supreme Court's power of judicial review.

It seems timely, therefore, to inquire how far the current conception of the Supreme Court as an obstacle to the exercise of legislative power by the central government is justified, and to canvass the extent of the need, if any, for curtailment of the …

Constitutional Law-Agricultural Adjustment Act-The General Welfare Clause And The Tenth Amendment

Michigan Law Review

In what is without question the most important decision rendered in recent years the Supreme Court of the United States has swept away the legal basis of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. The processing tax, an essential part of a plan for the control of production, has been ruled unconstitutional as involving an invasion of the powers reserved to the states. Unlike the case of Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States, in which the National Industrial Recovery Act was held invalid by a unanimous Court, this pillar of the New Deal's vast recovery program was destroyed by a six-to-three decision, …

Banks And Banking - Application Of Bank Collection Code To National Banks

Michigan Law Review

Defendant national bank received from an out-of-town correspondent bank for collection a check drawn on another local bank. Through the local clearing house this check was presented and paid, whereupon defendant bank sent to its correspondent its draft in payment. Before presentment of the draft, however, defendant bank failed and the draft was dishonored. In an action by the payee of the check, from whom the correspondent bank had taken it, to impress a trust on the assets of defendant bank, it was held, reversing the lower courts, that the state statute (the Bank Collection Code) which was applied …

The Enforcement Of Foreign Judgments In Anglo-American Law, Hessel E. Yntema

Michigan Law Review

Conflicts of laws are the necessary result of the division of judicial business. There are too many legal actions arising in localities too diffused to be tried in a single court or system of courts; consequently, litigation has to be distributed, and a highly complex body of jurisdictional regulations has been evolved to control the distribution. Once admit the multiplicity of courts, and diversities of law appear. Not only does the procedure in particular courts respond in some degree to the local traditions of the bar and to the specialized needs of the communities served, but indigenous precedents and practices …

Foreign Enforcement Of Actions For Wrongful Death, William H. Rose

Michigan Law Review

Actions for wrongful death have a long history in the common law. Homicide was once a private matter giving rise to the blood feud and later to the wergild, whereby a money substitute replaced private warfare. With the development of criminal law the crown took jurisdiction over all killings. At a time when all felonies carried with them the death penalty, forfeiture of chattels and escheat of lands, the right to sue for wrongful death was scarcely of practical importance. This was especially so since felony included negligent killing, and even an accidental killing required the king's pardon if …

Cooperation Between The Interstate Commerce Commission And The State Commissions In Railroad Regulation, Martin L. Lindahl

Michigan Law Review

Cooperation between the Interstate Commerce Commission and the state commissions in railroad regulation has been developed to increase the effectiveness of public control under our dual regulatory system. The division of power between federal and state governments, based upon the traditional distinction between interstate and intrastate commerce, has led to a multitude of diverse and conflicting statutes and administrative orders applicable to the same set of transportation agencies. In large measure the problem of dual control has been solved by giving to the federal government a virtually complete occupancy of the fields of rate, finance, and service regulation of interstate …

Conflict Of Laws - Federal Employers Liability Act - Jurisdiction Of State Courts Over Foreign Causes Of Action Between Nonresident Parties, H. F. B.

Michigan Law Review

The historical classification of actions for personal injuries as transitory imposes no limitation upon the prosecution of foreign suits, either by reference to the residence of the parties or the place in which the action arises. Whenever jurisdiction of the person of the defendant is obtained, the power to hear and determine this type of tort action inheres in every court having jurisdiction of the subject matter. An extreme application of the doctrine of the transitory character of personal actions is not infrequently permitted under the statutes as to venue, wherever suits between parties, all of whom are nonresidents of …

Conflict Of Laws - Foreign Marriage - Dower

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was divorced in the District of Columbia on the ground of her adultery with defendant's intestate. A statute of the District provided that the innocent party only may remarry. With no intention of evading the statute, plaintiff and defendant's intestate established a domicil in Florida and were there married. On the death of the latter in the District of Columbia, plaintiff claimed a dower interest in real estate located there. Held, plaintiff can recover. Loughran v. Loughran, 292 U. S. 216, 54 Sup. Ct. 684 (1934), reversing Loughran v. Loughran, (App. D. C. 1933) 66 F. …