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"Arbitrary and Fortuitous"? The Revival of Territorialism in American Choice of Law
Brilmayer, Lea Halbhuber, Fred
Brilmayer, Lea
Halbhuber, Fred
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Abstract
Most Americans probably take it for granted that the United States is a
collection of territorially defined states. They would be surprised to hear
the opinion of certain legal academics-that when deciding which state's
law applied, it shouldn't matter where the plaintiff was injured or where
the contract was formed, because state boundaries are "arbitrary and
fortuitous." But this seems to be the opinion of a number of American
Conflict of Laws professors, who have spread this idea to American
judges over the last several decades. The time is ripe for the revival of
an important concept in American choice of law: territorialism.