Readers, check out the new Transnational Litigation Blog! The blog is a project of a stellar group of scholars, some of whom are already friends of Letters Blogatory: Ingrid Wuerth, Bill Dodge, Maggie Gardner, and John Coyle. And it has a terrific group of advisors—I cannot believe they put me on the list.

The freestanding blog format has its detractors. Some say that if you want to engage readers online, it’s best to stick with social media. There are a lot of law professors who do this very effectively. Some say that even if you’re going to write longform articles on the web, you should be on a platform like Substack rather than a freestanding website. But although I’m not a tech person, I still find a lot appeal in the old-fashioned idea of the web, where anyone could have their own web site and where you can make your site look as you wish and do what you wish. So I am glad to see new blogs spring up, especially blogs that are certain to feature lots of interesting and timely posts.

The TLB starts with an interesting post by Ingrid on Fuld v. PLO, an SDNY case holding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the PLO because the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, a 2019 statute under which making “pay to slay” payments, as the Palestinian Authority does, or having an office in the US signifies consent to personal jurisdiction, does not comport with due process. Ingrid is a true expert and lays out the case very nicely. I particularly like this genre of case, because as I’ve noted before, the Palestinian Authority or the PLO can only make personal jurisdiction arguments in US courts by denying that Palestine is a state (because under the FSIA a court has personal jurisdiction over any claim against a foreign state that is within an exception to the FSIA’s rule of foreign sovereign immunity from suit).

I and at least some of the other advisers have also contributed posts about this and that, so stay tuned for a post from me in the next couple of weeks on electronic methods of service.

Congratulations to Ingrid, Bill, Maggie, and John, and please check out their blog!