Month: May 2011

  • Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Judicial Assistance

    The international law coverage of the charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn has focused, rightly, on the public international law question of whether Strauss-Kahn can assert a defense of immunity because he is the managing director of the IMF. Duncan Hollis at Opinio Juris has a post up about this. What about the judicial assistance aspects of the……

  • Case of the Day: Mitchell v. Volkswagen Group of America

    The case of the day, Mitchell v. Volkswagen Group of Am., Inc. (N.D. Ga. 2010), shows the importance of checking the text of reservations to the Hague Conventions in their original language rather than relying on the English translation on the Hague Conference website. The claim was for product liability that resulted in the death……

  • Which Courts Decide The Most Judicial Assistance Cases?

    The U.S. judicial assistance decisions are not evenly distributed throughout the country. I thought it would be interesting to see which courts have decided the most cases within the Letters Blogatory scope of coverage. There are some caveats, cautions, and provisos. We have only about five months of decisions. My Westlaw query may have missed……

  • Case of the Day: In re Chevron Corp.

    The case of the day, In re Chevron Corp. (D. Md. 2010), is one of Chevron’s applications for judicial assistance in the Lago Agrio case. Chevron sought discovery from two of the Lago Agrio plaintiffs’ experts. It sought the discovery for use in the Lago Agrio case itself as well as for use in the……

  • Case of the Day: Kaiser Group International v. World Bank

    The case of the day is Kaiser Group Int’l, Inc. v. World Bank (D.C. Cir. 2011). It has an interesting procedural history. Kaiser contracted to build a steel mill for Nova Hut, a firm partially owned by the Czech Republic. The project was financed by the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank……