LAW 756: International Civil Litigation in U. S. Courts
This course treats problems raised in civil litigation in international cases in U.S. courts. Included are cases and materials dealing with the acquisition of judicial jurisdiction over foreign defendants, problems of service of process abroad, gathering evidence in foreign countries, procuring foreign counsel, proof of foreign law in United States courts, and enforcement of foreign country judgments in the United States. Emphasis is placed on the Hague Service of Process and the Hague Evidence Conventions. Although some prior or concurrent study in Conflict of Laws is desirable, the course method does not presume such knowledge. [3]
756a. International Civil Litigation in U.S. Courts Short Course.
As a result of the increasingly transnational nature of business activity, civil litigation in U.S. courts frequently involves a foreign element – for example, one of the parties may be a foreign entity, or the case may involve a transaction that took place overseas. This short course examines the issues that arise in such litigation. Many of those issues involve the adaptation of U.S. jurisdictional and procedural law to international cases: when is a foreign defendant subject to personal jurisdiction in a U.S. court? How does a U.S. plaintiff go about discovering evidence that is located abroad? In class actions, can U.S. courts certify “global” classes that include plaintiffs from other countries? Other issues relate to the conflicts that arise when U.S.-based litigation is used to address activity based partly or primarily in other countries: under what circumstances does U.S. regulatory law apply to foreign conduct? When should U.S. courts use the doctrine of forum non conveniens to avoid conflict with foreign systems? In order to address these issues coherently within the framework of a one-week course, the class will examine them using securities fraud litigation as a substantive backdrop. [1]
