International Civil Litigation and Dispute Resolution

This course explores how U.S. civil litigation changes when either a party or the law comes from outside the U.S. This exploration involves both procedure (how does one conduct discovery in Thailand or France? Can one enforce a foreign judgment in the U.S/, or vice versa?) and substance (What law does one apply to a child custody dispute between two parents who hold radically different cultural visions of the relationship between parent and child?). We shall look at how familiar issues--such as jurisdiction, choice of law, venue, service of process; evidence gathering and proof; remedies, issue and claim preclusion, and enforcement of judgments--change with the introduction of an international element. We shall also look at how doctrines special to international law--foreign sovereign immunity, the act of state doctrine, and diplomatic and head-of-state immunity--affect civil litigation. The course will have as a central theme the ways in which internationalization reshapes and illuminates U.S. civil litigation. Three hours; in-house examination.This course was previously numbered 271B.