Category Archives: Conflict of Laws
Coyle, Dodge and Simowitz, ‘Choice of Law in the American Courts in 2025: Thirty-Ninth Annual Survey’
ABSTRACT This is the Thirty-Ninth Annual Survey of American Choice-of-Law Cases. It was written at the request of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Conflict of Laws. It is intended as a service to fellow teachers and to students of conflicts law, both inside and outside of the United States. Its purpose remains […]
‘From Deference to Objectivity: How Courts Are Rewriting the Commercial Reservation’
INTRODUCTION The 1958 New York Convention (‘NYC’) is widely regarded as international arbitration’s most significant achievement. Having been ratified by over 160 states, establishing a credible system of enforcement for arbitral awards. Yet the commercial reservation under Article 1(3), which allows the reserving state to limit the application of the ‘Convention only to differences … […]
Mukarrum Ahmed, ‘The Evolution of Business and Human Rights Litigation against Multinational Companies’
ABSTRACT This article will examine the evolution of business and human rights litigation against UK based multinational companies (MNCs) commenced by the victims of their alleged wrongdoing abroad in wake of the UK Supreme Court’s decisions in Vedanta v Lungowe and Okpabi v Shell. It will be argued that a methodologically pluralist private international law’s […]
James George, ‘Chimeric Contacts and Consent: The Ill-Reasoned Expansion of Corporate Jurisdictional Exposure’
ABSTRACT Two recent Supreme Court decisions have imposed aspects of general jurisdiction in a way that exposes corporations and possibly other legal actors to litigation in spuriously connected forums. One case – Ford Motor Company v Montana – reached a fair result but with strained reasoning that will support unfair results. The second case – […]
‘Enforceability of foreign judgments for punitive damages under English law and South African law’
In Motorola Solutions v Hytera Communications Corporation, the Court of Appeal held that a judgment that includes a punitive damages component is unenforceable in its entirety (the judgment is available here). The punitive component cannot be severed so that the judgment creditor can enforce non-punitive components. Motorola sued Hytera in the US. One of its […]
O’Brien and Lindley, ‘In the Matter of the S Trust: Cayman court agrees to unwind establishment of a trust tainted by a mistaken advice as to the Settlor’s domicile’
ABSTRACT The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands used its statutory power under Section 64A of the Trusts Act to set aside the establishment of a discretionary trust based on mistaken advice regarding the settlor’s domicile, highlighting the court’s flexible and pragmatic approach to rectifying flawed fiduciary decisions with unintended tax consequences. The case illustrates […]
Stefano Dominelli, ‘Torts in outer space: conflict of laws perspectives’
ABSTRACT Human activities in outer space impose a reflection on the structural inadequacy of current connecting factors, such as the lex loci damni, which may not properly operate when all events are localised in areas (rather than a territory) not subject to the sovereignty of a State. By integrating space law principles and interests in […]
Bálint Kovács, ‘Europeanisation of private international law: Balancing national traditions and EU rules’
ABSTRACT The reviewed monograph provides a thorough examination of Hungarian private international law, set against the backdrop of EU private international law developments, and their application by the Hungarian judiciary. The book begins with a historical overview of Hungarian private international law, culminating in the 2017 recodification under the Act on Private International Law (APIL). […]
Bianca Scraback, ‘The international element requirement for consumer contract jurisdiction in the Brussels Ia Regulation’
ABSTRACT Whether or not local jurisdiction in consumer contract cases is regulated in the EU by the Brussels Ia Regulation or domestic rules on jurisdiction hinges on the existence of a relevant international element. Even determining the relevance of international elements using a rules-based approach and despite two decisions of the CJEU, the paper argues […]
Thomas Pfeiffer, ‘Civil Climate Change Litigation Between Law and Politics Limited Scope Rather Than Unlimited Interpretation’
ABSTRACT The article aims to identify the limits of European law and the challenges of conflict of laws that arise in relation to civil climate change litigation. The legal dispute pending in the Netherlands between Vereniging Milieudefensie and Shell and the global order initially issued by the Rechtbank Den Haag requiring CO₂ reduction play a […]