Academic

Little on Choice of Law & Federal Jurisdiction

By Lawrence Solum

Laura E. Little (Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law) has posted Empowerment Through Restraint: Reverse Preemption or Hybrid Lawmaking? (Case Western Reserve Law Review, Vol. 59, 2009) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

In the jurisprudence of federal jurisdiction, we often observe federal courts exerting power and control under the banner of restraint and deference to states and to other branches of the federal government. This article explores two examples of this empowerment technique, in which the United States Supreme Court deployed federal judicial power to resolve choice of law questions. The examples come from diverse contexts, unlikely bedfellows for analysis: foreign affairs and bankruptcy. In both contexts, the Roberts Court acted in the name of respect for state prerogatives, but bestowed on itself and other federal judges considerable latitude to determine the outcome of suits.

The foreign affairs illustration of this "negative" empowerment technique is the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in Medellin v. Texas.. Framed as a choice of law case, Medellin presented the choice between state procedural default rules and treaty provisions interpreted by the International Court of Justice. The bankruptcy illustration derives from a line of cases beginning with Butner v. United States and analyzing the choice between state law and federal bankruptcy law. In both illustrations, the Supreme Court named state law as "the winner."

Beyond showing how the Supreme Court's choice of law analysis empowers the federal judiciary, this article also explores how the Medellin and bankruptcy cases add to a growing body of hybrid law. Working within the confines of federal principles, the Court allowed other sovereignties (states) to provide meaningful contributions to federal regulation and thereby successfully navigated a permeable line between state and federal law. This bodes well for the future of hybrid lawmaking in general. Might the Court's approach also provide an upbeat message for debates about whether United States courts should integrate international and transnational principles in their decisionmaking?

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on February 10, 2009 (boomark / email).