Civil adjudication often addresses activities that span state and national borders. Courts in the jurisdiction where a suit is filed must decide when to apply laws promulgated elsewhere, when to exercise power over parties located elsewhere, when to recognize judgments rendered elsewhere, and how to manage the overlapping authority of state and federal institutions. This course examines rules and standards that constrain these decisions. Topics include historical and modern approaches to horizontal choice of law, constitutional constraints on choice of law and extraterritorial legislation, recognition of judgments, adjudicative jurisdiction, venue, and vertical choice of law (the Erie doctrine).
The course previously was called “Civil Procedure II” and is required for the Civil Litigation concentration.