Constitutional limitations on choice of law

Question 1

Arbitrary or fundamentally unfair

Answer 1

Bounded by the Due Process and Full Faith and Credit Clauses, a state may apply its own substantive law to an issue only if:

(1) The state has a significant contact or aggregation of contacts with the issue…
(2) …such that application of its own law is neither arbitrary nor fundamentally unfair.

Question 2

Arbitrary or fundamentally unfair: procedural law

Answer 2

The forum state generally is entitled to apply its own procedural law to any issue that is traditionally viewed as procedural.

Question 3

Full Faith and Credit: discrimination against foreign law

Answer 3

Under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, a state may not refuse to entertain claims under another state’s law solely because that law comes from another state.

That is to say, it can do so for other reasons—e.g., public policy reasons.