Conflict of laws

Question 1

 There are two important but distinct testing areas for conflicts:

Answer 1

1. Recognition of judgments; and
2. Choice of law.

Question 2

To Recognize a judgment the court must verify:

Answer 2

Full faith and credit satisfied? JOF Art. IV sec. 1 Constitution
a. Jurisdiction: The rendering state must have had jurisdiction over the parties (that is, personal jurisdiction) and jurisdiction over the subject matter. Exception: When the issue of jurisdiction has been fully and fairly litigated, the jurisdictional determination is itself entitled to full faith and credit.
b. On the merits: The judgment entered by the rendering state must have been on the merits. Note: A default judgment treats all factual contentions as admitted and is therefore on the merits for full faith and credit and recog¬nition of judgment purposes.
c. Finality: The judgment entered by the rendering court must be a final judgment. The most common application here is a judgment on appeal in the rendering jurisdiction, which is not final.

Question 3

Foreign judgments recognized if:

add principle

Answer 3

Foreign judgments: the source to recognize must be comity or treaty. Rule: Under principles of comity, a recognizing court will exercise discre¬tion to decide whether the foreign judgment should be recognized. Many of the same principles as full faith and credit will be considered to guide the court’s discretion.

Question 4

A choice of law question may arise when two conditions are satisfied:

Answer 4

The lawsuit involves factual connections with multiple states; and The multiple states will have different laws leading to different results.

Question 5

The core question is: “Which state’s law will govern?” The core answer is:

Answer 5

The governing law is the law selected by the forum court according to its choice of law approach (assuming no appli¬cable constitutional or statutory restrictions).

Question 6

Choice of law – Analytical Approach: There are three main analytical approaches:

Answer 6

1. Vested rights
2. Most significant relationship approach
3. Interest analysis

Question 7

Explain 1. Vested rights approach

Answer 7

the following three analytical steps are taken: (1) characterizing the area of substan-tive law, (2) determining the particular choice of law rule, and (3) local¬izing the rule to be applied. Example: ‘Under this approach the court will apply the law of that state mandated by the applicable vesting rule. That rule is selected according to the relevant substantive area of law.”

Question 8

Most significate relationship approach

Answer 8

b. Most significate relationship approach “Under this approach the court will apply the law of the state which is most significantly related to the outcome of the litigation. To determine this, the court will consider connecting facts and policy principles.”

Question 9

Interest analysis (governmental interest) approach

Answer 9

c. Interest analysis (governmental interest): “Under this approach the court will consider which states have a legitimate interest in the outcome of the litigation. The forum court will apply its own law as long as it has a legitimate interest. If the forum state has no legitimate interest, it will apply the law of another interested state.”

Question 10

How to determine a court has the most significant interest in a tort cases:

Answer 10

GRID C to determine which state has the most significant interests.
G – GOVERNMENT interest and the policy for its law;
R – The state, if any, where the parties RELATIONSHIP is centered;
I – The state where the INJURY occurred;
D – DOMICLIES of the contracting parties
C – State where the CONDUCT causing the injury occurred.