Confronting the New Breed of Transnational Litigation: Abusive Foreign Judgments

Released at the 12th Annual Legal Reform Summit, this new study discusses the legal arguments regarding enforcement of foreign judgments against businesses in U.S. courts. Hier der Bericht: TransnationalLitigation_AbusiveForeignJudgments_Oct2011

At the same time that globalization has increased the frequency of transnational litigation, new tactics from the U.S. plaintiffs’ bar have dramatically increased the stakes of foreign judgments for U.S. companies. Several recent high-profile cases involving both plaintiffs and judgments emanating from outside the United States have demonstrated the effectiveness of the plaintiffs’ bar’s political pressure and manipulation of the legal processes in certain foreign countries. These tactics, in turn, can have a significant impact on judgment recognition litigation in the United States. While these are not uniquely American problems, the prominence of American multinational corporations and the resourcefulness of U.S. legal practitioners make these issues exceptionally important to U.S. corporations. And because many of these foreign judgments emanating from politicized and corrupt environments are intended to, and do, end up in litigation in the United States, a searching and realistic scrutiny by U.S. courts is imperative.