Conflicts

Question 1

Domiciles of individuals, minors, incompetent people, and corporations

Answer 1

Individuals: In general, domicile will be where the person is present with the intent to remain for an unlimited time and when he abandons any prior domicile.

Minors: Minor children are domiciled where their custodial parents are domiciled unless they are emancipated.

Incompetents: A person lacking the mental legal capacity to choose a domicile will retain their parent’s domicile.

Corps: A corporation’s domicile is always the state where it is incorporated.

Question 2

DPC 14A limitations on choice of law

Answer 2

Under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, a forum state may apply its own law to a particular case only if it has a significant contract or significant aggregation of contracts with the state such that a choice of its law is neither arbitrary or fundamentally unfair.

Question 3

Full Faith & Credit Clause limitations on choice of law

Answer 3

The Full Faith and Credit Clause requires a forum state to apply the law of another state when the forum state has no contacts with or interest in the controversy, but it does not prevent the forum state from applying its own law when the forum has such contacts or interest in the controversy.

In addition, the Full Faith and Credit Clause does not require a state to apply another state’s law in violation of its own legitimate public policy.

Question 4

Party-controlled choice of law

Answer 4

Most courts will enforce a contractual choice-of-law provision if it is (i) a valid agreement with an effective choice-of-law clause; (ii) applicable to the lawsuit under the terms of the contract; (iii) reasonably related to the lawsuit (i.e., law to be applied is from a state w/ connections to parties or K); and (iv) not in violation of the public policy of the forum state or another interested state

Question 5

Rule statement for general approaches to choice of law

Answer 5

So long as there is no constitutional mandate or statutory directive dictating which law applies, courts generally approach choice-of-law questions using one of three different approaches. These approaches are: (i) the vested-rights approach of the First Restatement; (ii) the most-significant-relationship approach of the Second Restatement; and (iii) the governmental-interest apporach.

Question 6

Vested-rights approach

Question 7

Most-significant-relationship approach

Question 8

Governmental-interest approach

Question 9

Klaxon doctrine

Question 10

Dépeçage

Question 11

Renvoi

Question 12

Full-Faith & Credit Clause state enforcing federal judgment

Answer 12

Under the U.S. Constitution, state courts are required to give full faith and credit to valid judgments of other states. State courts are likewise required to treat federal judgments as those judgments would be treated by the federal courts. The issues decided in one court cannot be re-litigated in another, and the state in which enforcement is sough must honor the judgment of the federal court. Therefore, a party against whom enforcement of a judgment is sought may collaterally challenge the original state judgment based on lack subject matter jurisdiction only if the jurisdictional issues were not litigated or waived in the original action.