Extraterritoriality and Conflict of Laws

Abstract

This Article views the modern federal presumption against the extraterritoriality of U.S. law through the lens of conflict of laws. It argues that the presumption makes many of the same mistakes that conflict methodologies have already made, and sometimes the mistakes are worse. It then proposes a way to harmonize federal extraterritoriality and state choice of law to identify a superior approach to both.

Keywords: Extraterritoriality, Conflict of laws, Governing laws clause, Restatements of the law, United States Supreme Court doctrines, Morrison v. National Australia Bank