Abstract:
Forum shopping gets a bad name. This is all the more true in the context of transnational litigation. The term is associated with unprincipled gamesmanship and undeserved victories. Courts therefore often seek to thwart the practice. But in recent years, exaggerated perceptions of the ‘evils’ of forum shopping among courts in different countries have led US courts to impose high barriers to global forum shopping. These extreme measures prevent global forum shopping from serving three important and unappreciated functions: protecting access to justice, promoting the effectiveness of regulatory regimes, and fostering legal reform.
This Article challenges the common perceptions of global forum shopping that have supported these recent doctrinal developments. It traces the history of concerns about global forum shopping and distinguishes between domestic and global forum shopping to discern the core concerns about the practice. It then identifies these unappreciated virtues of global forum shopping and suggests balanced ways that courts should protect them.
Bookman, Pamela K, The Unsung Virtues of Global Forum Shopping (April 21, 2016). Notre Dame Law Review, Vol 92 (forthcoming).
First posted 2016-04-26 06:27:02
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