Conflict of Laws

Most Americans live their personal and economic lives spread over more than one state. Transactions and disputes arising from this pervasive phenomenon provoke the key issues in this course: jurisdiction, choice-of-law, the recognition of judgments, and so on. These issues may seem, at first glance, to be among the most technical, practical, and dry matters in the law school curriculum. However, they also raise the thorniest questions of legal legitimacy. The possibility that more than one court and more than one law might apply to a particular case puts into question some of our most taken-for-granted assumptions. What is the basis for any particular court to exercise jurisdiction over anyone? What is the basis for the application of any particular law to anyone? The many different approaches to conflict-of-laws that have developed over the past hundred years track the changes in legal theory during the same period – from formal territorialism to policy-based pramatism and well beyond.