Conflicts: Rules Flashcards
First Restatement / vested rights approach
apply law of place where the last act necessary to give rise to a cause of action takes place
Second Restatement / most significant relationship
consider principles:
- the relevant policies of the forum state and other states
- systemic interests including certainty, uniformity, predictability, and simplicity
- the parties’ justified expectations (if planned transaction)
then consider contacts and presumptions
governmental interest analysis
apply law where doing so would promote relevant policies
- conduct-regulating law: interested if conduct in territory or domiciliary is injured
- loss-shifting law: interested if domiciliary would benefit
if two+ interested, apply forum law
if none interested, apply forum law
R 1st: torts
where injury occurred
R 1st: contracts
validity, interpretation, defenses: where acceptance occurred
performance: where performance occurred
R 1st: tangible property
law of the situs
R 1st: intangible property
where created
R 1st: real property
law of the situs
R 2d: torts
presumption: where injury occurred
contacts:
- where injury occurred
- where injury-causing conduct occurred
- where parties domiciled
- where parties’ relationship is centered
R 2d: contracts
presumption: if place of negotiation = place of performance, use that place’s law
contacts:
- where contract formed
- where negotiation occurred
- where performance occurred
- where subject matter is located
- where parties domiciled
R 2d: presumption for land contract
law of the situs
R 2d: presumption for personal property contract
place of delivery
R 2d: presumption for life insurance contract
domicile of insured
R 2d: presumption for loans
where repayment is required
R 2d: presumption for transportation contract
place of departure
R 2d: tangible property
law of the situs, unless more significant relationship
R 2d: intangible property
most significant relationship based on principles
R 2d: real property
law of the situs
corporations
state of incorporation
family law: validity, annulment
where ceremony happened
family law: divorce
plaintiff’s domicile
family law: real marital property
law of the situs
family law: personal marital property
parties’ domicile at acquisition
family law: premarital agreement
most significant relationship based on principles
validity of the will
testator’s domicile at death
inheritance of personal property
testator’s domicile at death
inheritance of real property
law of the situs
defenses to using other state’s law
- it’s a penal law
- against public policy
- it’s a procedural law, not substantive
procedural vs. substantive law
forum state can always decline to follow other state’s PROCEDURAL law
procedural or substantive: sufficiency of pleadings
procedural
procedural or substantive: proper and necessary parties
procedural
procedural or substantive: venue
procedural
procedural or substantive: discovery
procedural
procedural or substantive: service of process
procedural
procedural or substantive: statute of limitations
procedural as between states
for Erie purposes, substantive
procedural or substantive: choice-of-law rules
substantive
procedural or substantive: parol evidence rule
substantive
false conflict
under governmental interests analysis, when only one state is interested, apply that state’s law
true conflict
under governmental interests analysis, when more than one state is interested, apply forum law
unprovided-for case
under governmental interests analysis, when no state is interested, apply forum law
constitutional mandate for choice of law
A state may apply its own substantive law to an issue it if has a significant contact or aggregation of contacts such that the application of its law is neither arbitrary nor fundamentally unfair.
