EUROPEAN PROSPECTIVE ON CHOICE OF LAW

--ACT OF STATE DOCTRINE: official acts of another country w/in its borders will not be reexamined by another court; Cts of one country won’t judge acts of another govt. done w/in its own territory.

●Old Reason: Comity. ●Modern Reason: Sep of Pwrs argument: Cts have no power to judge act of another state w/o there being a treaty governing the action b/c this is a function of Pres. & Cong

●Doctrine is only applicable when legal validity of act is challenged, not when motivation for act is challenged. W.S. Kirkpatrick v. Envt’l Tectonics Corp. (1990): bribes to Nigerian govt were illegal under US & Nigerian law.

●Doctrine is N/A where there is no foreign law to back up what the foreign govt did. Alfred Dunhill of London, Inc v. Republic of Cuba (1976): Cuba seized business, US paid Cuba for past due accounts owed to business. US SC: no Cuban law allows Cuba to keep pre-expropriation $, so Cuba owes $ to AD.

●Doctrine is N/A where Executive branch expressly represents to court that application of doctrine would not advance interests of Am. Foreign policy. (Bernstein exception: rejected by majority on USSC)

--RECOGNITION OF FOREIGN JDGMTS

●Reciprocity: (fed. CL) US won’t recognize foreign jdmts as final from country that won’t recognize US jdgmts as final. Hilton v. Guyot (1895) fr. jdgmt not recognized. *FFC: NO reciprocity doctrine. BUT: Since Erie and Klaxon, state CL applies in diversity case, not fed CL. Few states recognize reciprocity theory, so likely fed DCs today won’t recognize it either.

●State can consider adequacy of notice & opportunity to appear by its own criteria when examining a foreign jdgmt

●R(2^nd) of Conflicts: -A valid jdgmt; -rendered in foreign nation -after fair trial -in contested proceeding -will be recognized in US so far as -immediate parties and -underlying cause of action are same.

●U Foreign $ Jdgmts Recognition Act: Foreign money jdgmts recognized as to the extent of the FFC clause, w/ certain exceptions for lack of notice, fraud, public policy, conflicting jdgmts, foreign forum was seriously inconvenient.

●European Convention on Jx and Enforcement of Jdgmts: est. rules governing F&C for jdgmts in EU—but NOT US.

●US jdgmts not likely to be recognized abroad b/c they consider our recoveries excessive. EU won’t give foreign jdgmts F&C unless there is a treaty or signed convention. There is none, so US jdgmts aren’t recognized