General Jurisdiction and the Transnational Law Market
66 Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc 67 (2013)
Pepperdine University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2014/8
15 Pages Posted: 26 Apr 2014 Last revised: 10 May 2014
Date Written: April 24, 2014
Abstract
In this essay, I argue that the question of the metes and bounds of general jurisdiction in the context of agency or affiliate jurisdiction should not obscure the practical realities of modern-day transnational litigation. Inasmuch as the Bauman case is about general jurisdiction, it is, perhaps more importantly, about the role of U.S. courts in policing transnational forum shopping. This transnational forum shopping exists as part of a transnational law market where litigants encourage courts to compete for transnational cases. The Supreme Court should take account of these facts as part of its analysis.
This essay is divided into four parts. Part I reviews the background of the Bauman case. Part II explores Bauman as an example of transnational forum shopping. Part III develops the idea of a transnational law market and applies it to the case. Part IV explains how general jurisdiction fits into this transnational market for law and examines what the governing rules for general jurisdiction might look like in light of that market.
Keywords: personal jurisdiction, forum shopping, transnational law, general jurisdiction
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