Private International Law before the United States Supreme Court: Recent Terms in Review

Charles T Kotuby, Jr

Associate, Jones Day, Washington DC

JPrivIntL Vol 4 Issue 1 (April 2008)

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Abstract

This article is intended to provide an overview of recent Supreme Court jurisprudence on private international law. It will discuss several cases that have been brought to the Supreme Court over the past few terms, and will utilize these cases as a lens through which to view the movement of the Court toward or away from an increased awareness of and international consensus on private international law issues. Interspersed throughout this discussion will be mention of other issues of private international law that may be brought before the Court in the future. The article concludes that while the Court has embraced its role in defining the extraterritorial reach of federal laws, bringing about much needed predictability for international sovereign and private interests, it has separately continued to defer questions of personal jurisdiction to the authority of lower federal and state courts with little regard for internal (and international) harmony.

Keywords

Private International law; United States Supreme Court; Subject Matter Jurisdiction; Personal Jurisdiction; Forum Non Conveniens