Conduct-Regulating Exception in Modern United States Choice-of-Law, The
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Authors
Cross, John T.
Issue Date
2003
Volume
36
Issue
Type
Journal Article
Language
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION|As courts and scholars regularly remind us, choice-of-law doctrine in the United States underwent a sea of change during the latter half of the last century. The modern methods of selecting law represent a fundamentally different way of thinking about the choice-of-law problem. The new thinking most clearly manifests itself in the field of torts. Whereas the classical method focused almost exclusively on where the tort occurred, the modern methods focus more on who was involved in the alleged tort. Thus, courts applying the modern choice-of-law methods are much more likely to select the law of the jurisdiction where the parties reside than the law of the place of the tort. |Of course, to every rule there is an exception. Even under the modern methods there are certain issues for which courts continue to apply the law of the place where the tort occurred. The most notable of these issues are those concerning a party's conduct. If the state of conduct has a law regulating how the tortfeasor or victim is supposed to act in the particular situation, courts will apply that standard rather than the law of the parties' residence. In fact, this preference for the conduct-regulating law of the conduct state is virtually absolute, winning out even over the law of other interested states. Courts as a practical matter recognize a "conduct-regulating exception" to the normal interest-based choice-of-law methods...
Description
Citation
36 Creighton L. Rev. 425 (2002-2003)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law