Many solo and “small firm” practitioners whose practice is predominantly county or state-centered may believe that “international law” has no relevance to what they do. This results in part from a preconception as to what international law entails. For our purposes, attorneys are most likely to be involved in matters of private international law. Private international law is defined in Section 101 the Restat. 3d of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States “as law directed to resolving controversies between private persons, natural as well as juridical, primarily in domestic litigation, arising out of situations having a significant relationship to more than one state.” Beyond choice of law issues, though, there are a variety of other contexts in which the law of other countries becomes relevant, which may better be referred to as foreign law rather than international law, and contexts in which the United States has by statute or under principles of comity recognized certain law applicable to situations involving foreign entities. This article, by no means exhaustive, highlights three basic areas in which solo and small firm practitioners are likely to encounter foreign law issues.
Contracts
Regardless of the direction of current trade policies, importing and exporting will remain important and significant components of the economy. According to an export fact sheet released April 5, 2016, by the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration, approximately 98 percent of U.S. companies exporting goods in 2014 were small or medium-sized companies with less than 500 employees.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
