Conflict of Laws, Cases and Materials, 2007

• ISBN13: 9781599412931
• ISBN10: 1599412934
• Edition: 12th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-11
• Publisher: West Academic

Summary

Added as a principal case is the 2006 decision by the House of Lords extending to statutory limits on damages the rule that quantification of damages is "procedural." The Law Lords thus justify refusal to apply New South Wales statutory limits on damages to a suit in England even though the U.K choice-of-law rule selects New South Wales law. Other new items in the 2007 Supplement include: a 2006 United States Supreme Court decision on the due process requirement of adequate notice; a 2007 United States Supreme Court decision on whether a federal district court may grant a forum non conveniens dismissal before it determines that it has subject-matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction over the defendant; a 10th Circuit decision that when an agreement contains both choice-of-law and choice?of-forum provisions, any ambiguities in the forum provision are resolved under the law of the jurisdiction that the parties have chosen; a 4th Circuit decision applying "interest analysis" to decide that U.S. bankruptcy law applies to Bahamian real property and renders the property subject to claims of creditors; a decision of the Supreme Court of Nevada that abandons a short-lived attempt to choose law for torts by four territorial facts and adopting instead the "most significant relationship test" of the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws; a Supreme Court of California decision that the court states results in the "maximum attainment of underlying purpose" of both California and Georgia by applying the law of neither state to all issues; newly revised provisions of a draft regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations (Rome II). Retained from the 2006 Supplement and updated where needed are discussions of other important developments since publication of the Twelfth Edition including United States Supreme Court opinions determining the ability of foreign citizens injured abroad to sue under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Alien Tort Statute, and the Sherman Act; opinions of the Supreme Court and the Second Circuit on whether the "revenue rule" prevents criminal or civil actions against U.S. defendants who conspire to deprive foreign countries of taxes; an en banc decision of the Ninth Circuit that is the latest chapter in Yahoo!?s resistance to decrees of a French court; Massachusetts and Idaho state court decisions assessing the current effect on cruise ship customers of Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute; the Federal Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and its effect on multi-state class actions. There is coverage of developments both in the U.S. and in other countries regarding same-sex legal relationships and their incidents. This topic is already an important source of conflict-of-laws issues and will grow in importance as more U.S. states and foreign countries adopt various forms of such arrangements. In keeping with the comparative approach of the book, the supplement also notes many developments abroad including an opinion of the Court of Justice of the European Communities interpreting the Brussels-I Regulation to further restrict English courts? ability to grant forum non conveniens stays; an opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada extending broad comity to the enforcement of foreign judgments; European Union regulations facilitating enforcement of a judgment rendered in one Union country in another Union country and increasing the availability of legal aid.