New Books Noted: Fundamentals of Transnational Litigation -- The United States, Canada, Japan, and the European Union

Derived from materials originally used in an advanced law course on U.S.-Japanese Disputes taught at the University of Washington Asian Law Program, this newly published casebook provides students from diverse legal systems with global perspectives on fundamental issues in transnational litigation.  It's called "Fundamentals of Transnational Litigation: The United States, Canada, Japan, and The European Union," and it has just been published by Lexis Nexis.  

The book includes chapters on these areas:

• Adjudicatory Jurisdiction
• Foreign Sovereign Immunity and Related Abstention Doctrines
• Parallel Litigation (including styas and anti-suit injunctions)
• Service of Process Abroad
• Taking of Evidence Abroad
• Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign-Country Judgments and Arbitral Awards
• Choice of Forum

The choice of cases and materials is good and worth looking at even if you're happy with whatever book you're now using to teach international litigation.  You've probably never seen as rich a selection of Japanese law cases in English.  I'm also taken by a new format for presenting the questions in each chapter -- they are set off in a box that makes them easy to find and identify in class.  A simple thing, I know, but I like it!  

The publisher highlights the following points:

• Canadian law provides the perspective of a contrasting common law jurisdiction to the U.S. and thus enables students to appreciate features of U.S. law that are truly exceptional.
• The Japanese cases and materials are intended to introduce the relevant rules and practices related to transnational litigation in a highly-developed and relatively typical civil law jurisdiction. Japan is also one of the most significant U.S. trading partners and Japanese firms are among the most frequent parties in transnational litigation in the U.S.
• The European Union adds a dimension of equal significance as a regional system with binding rules on transnational litigation for all member states, which include the civil law jurisdictions of continental Europe as well as the common law systems of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Professors (and adjunct professors too!) can request complimentary examination copies of LexisNexis law school publications to consider for class adoption or recommendation. Contact LexisNexis directly to do that.  This book also is available in a three-hole punched loose-leaf version with the same pagination as the hardbound book.

Mark E. Wojcik