Laura E. Little, who is a professor of law at Temple University, has posted Insights on Key Conflict of Laws Concepts: The Federal Government’s Role and Judgment Recognition and Enforcement on SSRN.

Key themes weave throughout the history and current relevance of Conflict of Laws. As the second installment of a two part compilation of essays, this paper presents many of these themes in the form of “Notes,” offering expository explanation, received wisdom, and new insights. These essays will appear in an upcoming book Conflict of Laws to be published in the Aspen Casebook Series by Wolters Kluwer. The essays cover global, jurisprudential topics as well as doctrinal, fundamental concepts. They should be useful to both novices seeking an overview of core conflict of laws themes as well as well-seasoned experts seeking pithy insights into the key debates in the field. This installment focuses on the role of the federal government as well as judgment recognition and enforcement.

The global, jurisprudential topics in this installment are:

(1) The Domestic and International Forum-Shopping System;
(2) Choice of Law Methodology for Federal Courts;
(3) Tools for Handling Duplicative Litigation;
(4) Theories of Stare Decisis and its Role in Federal Litigation;
(5) Intersection of Full Faith and Credit with Preclusion Principles;
(6) Private Incentives in Judgment Recognition and Enforcement;
(7) The Theoretical Kinship between Judgments and Marriage; and
(8) Libel Tourism

Specific doctrinal topics include:

(1) The Substance/Procedure Dichotomy
(2) Same Sex Marriage: Constitutional Restrictions on Same Sex Marriage Laws;
(3) The Significance and Limitations of Klaxon v. Stentor;
(4) Claim and Issue Preclusion; and
(5) SPEECH ACT of 2010

The third issue of the Belgian bilingual (French/Dutch) e-journal on private international law Tijdschrift@ipr.be / Revue@dipr.be for 2012 was just released.

The journal essentially reports on European and Belgian cases addressing issues of private international law.

It includes two articles:

• Wenliang Zhang, Reflections on Sino-Belgian Judicial Assistance in Civil and Commercial Matters
• Marie-Aude Deslandes, Le brevet européen à effet unitaire: un chemin périlleux

The workshop on Private International Law as Global Governance (PILAGG) at the Law School of the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po) will take place on Thursdays or Fridays from 12:30 to 2:30 pm, at the Law School.

The speakers for the Fall 2012 will be:

• Thu 4th October (doctoral workshop):  Katja LAGENBUCHER (Frankfurt) – “Some lessons from the crisis – does the law set the right incentives for board composition and liability in financial institutions?”  – room A12, 27, rue St Guillaume, Paris 7^e
• Fri 5th October: Horatia MUIR WATT (SPLS) – “The extraterritoriality issue in the KIOBEL case. What’s at stake in the new (1^st October) hearing before the US Supreme Court?” – room J208, 13, rue de l’Université, Paris 7e
• Thu 11th October (doctoral workshop): Darrem ISOM (San Francisco) – “Election 2012: Competing visions for a more perfect America” – room A12, 27, rue St Guillaume, Paris 7^e
• Fri 19th October: Symeon SYMEONIDES: (Salem) – “Codification and flexibility in PIL” – room J208, 13, rue de l’Université, Paris 7e
• Jeudi 8 novembre (séminaire doctoral) : Louis ASSIER ANDRIEU (SPLS) – title forthcoming – salle A12 au 27, rue St Guillaume, Paris 7^e
• Fri 9th November: Jacco BOMHOFF (London) – “The constitution of the conflict of laws” – room J208, 13, rue de l’Université, Paris 7e
• Thu 15th November: Hélène VAN LITH (Paris) – “Transnational class actions” – room A12, 27, rue St Guillaume, Paris 7^e
• Fri 16th November: Harm SCHEPEL (Kent) – “Legal pluralism and the embedded market: A legal constructivist approach to transnational private governance” –
• Jeudi 22 novembre (séminaire doctoral) : Mika YOKOYAMA (Kyoto) : title forthcoming – salle A 12 au 27, rue St Guillaume Paris 7^e
• Fri 23rd November: Gilles CUNIBERTI (Luxembourg) – “Three theories on the lex mercatoria” – room J208, 13, rue de l’Université, Paris 7e
• Thu 6th December (doctoral workshop): Dina WAKED (Cambridge, MA / SPLS) – title forthcoming –  room A12, 27, rue St Guillaume, Paris 7^e
• Fri 7th December: Emmanuel GAILLARD (SPLS) – title forthcoming – room J208, 13, rue de l’Université, Paris 7e

Private International Law

Inaugural Lecture

29 July
Transnational Commercial Law and Conflict of Laws: Institutional Co-operation and Substantive Complementarity
Herbert KRONKE, Professor at Heidelberg University

General Course

5-16 August
Le rôle du politique en droit international privé
Patrick KINSCH, Lawyer, Visiting Professor at the University of Luxemburg

Special Courses

29 July-2 August
Conflict among Enforcement Regimes in International Economic Law
Hannah BUXBAUM, John E. Schiller Chair in Legal Ethics, Indiana University

Efficiency in Private International Law
Toshiyuki KONO, Professor at Kyushu University

Le statut juridique des standards publics et privés dans les relations économiques internationales
Jan WOUTERS, Professor at the University of Leuven

5-9 August
“Trusts” in Private International Law
David John HAYTON, Judge at the Caribbean Court of Justice

Les méthodes du droit international privé à l’épreuve du droit du travail
Étienne PATAUT, Professor at Sorbonne Law School, Paris I University

12-16 August
International Commercial Arbitration, a Comparative Approach with Special Focus on Russia
Alexey KOSTIN, Head of the Private International Law Department, Moscow State Institute of International Relations

Protection internationale des droits de l’homme et activités des sociétés transnationales
Fabrizio MARRELLA, Professor at the University of Venice

More information is available here.

Two days ago, the US supreme court denied a bid by Chevron to block the $19bn Ecuadorian judgment issued in February 2011 against the company in a pollution case.

The case is Chevron Corp v. Naranjo et al, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 11-1428 (here)