Courts and commentators will sometimes assert that forum non conveniens is an ‘ancient common law doctrine’ that has ‘deep roots’ tracing back to the 1600s. As I recount in a forthcoming book chapter, those assertions all appear to trace back to a 1947 law review article and the three Scottish cases on which the author relied. The problem is, that law review article misunderstood those early cases and the Scottish approach to personal jurisdiction which they incorporated. As Professor Ardavan Arzandeh has similarly explored, those early Scottish cases turned on a lack of jurisdiction, not a discretionary decision to decline jurisdiction … (more)
[Maggie Gardner, Transnational Litigation Blog, 17 September 2026]
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