Article by Erin Ann O'Hara and Larry E. Ribstein
Developments in European choice of law seem to offer the United States a tantalizing opportunity for escape from the chaos of state-by-state choice-of-law rules. Specifically, the Rome Regulations provide the sort of uniform choice-of-law rules that have eluded the United States. Also, decisions of the European Court of Justice that permit firms to adopt home-country rules in some situations seem to facilitate jurisdictional choice by private parties. This top-down ordering of choice-of-law rules contrasts with the seemingly chaotic and decentralized system that prevails in the United States. However, decentralized American-style federalism might have something to offer Europe because choice of law in the United States has sparked a type of law market that helps constrain inefficient state regulatory efforts. Viewed from the perspective of which system best fosters a market for law, both the United States and Europe have advantages that each could learn from the other.
About the Author
Erin Ann O'Hara. Professor of Law, Director, Law and Human Behavior Program, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Vanderbilt University Law School. B.A. 1987, University of Rochester; J.D. 1990, Georgetown University Law Center.
Larry E. Ribstein. Professor of Law, Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law. B.A. 1968, John Hopkins University; J.D. 1972, University of Chicago Law School.
Citation
82 Tul. L. Rev. 2147 (2008)