Conflict of Laws

Imagine that a plane crashes in State A. The aircraft was assembled in State B, and owned by a company in State C, but the defective engine was manufactured in State D. The injured or deceased passengers are from ten different states. State laws vary on matters like availability of punitive damages and who may file a wrongful-death action. So, in our air crash example, which state s law should apply to the tort claims? This is an especially knotty example of a conflict-of-laws problem, but it gives you a taste of what the subject is about and why it is relevant to real-world legal practice.

Transactions or conduct may have contacts with more than one state. This reality generates a number of legal questions that are relevant both to transaction planning and litigation. For example, if two states have the power to legislate and regulate, and both seek to apply their law to the same dispute, how should we choose between them? Can the parties to a transaction avoid potential problems by simply choosing the applicable law themselves, and, if so, are there any limits to that form of party autonomy? Over the years, many different approaches have been developed to help guide lawyers and judges on these issues. We will examine those approaches and consider how they work in application. They also raise fascinating questions about the limits of sovereignty and the policy considerations underlying the exercise of sovereign authority.

The field known as conflict of laws comprises several sub-areas: (1) choice of law (the sort of problem illustrated by the air crash example); (2) requirements and restrictions on choice of law that are imposed by the U.S. Constitution and the realities of a federal system, including Full Faith and Credit, interstate enforcement of judgments, and the Erie doctrine; and (3) a sovereign s ability to exercise personal jurisdiction. We will cover all of these topics, though the dominant focus of the course is choice of law.

There are no prerequisites for this course, though there is some overlap (in the areas of personal jurisdiction and Erie) with Civil Procedure II. It is equally useful for 2Ls and 3Ls, and may be especially valuable for students planning to clerk.