The scope and application of the rules of civil jurisdiction is of immense practical importance in the conduct of transnational tort cases.
The incidence of transborder harms is on the increase. Transboundary pollution (for example, fall-out from Chernobyl, the determination of proper forum for litigation of the Bhopal dispute); the rise in complex international fraud (Guiness, Ferranti, BCCI); the increase in scope for product liability and intellectual property litigation in international commerce; and transnational personal injury cases arising from the increased flow of people across...

This book explores the source and extent of the right of parties to an international contract to make appropriate arrangements for the determination of their legal relationship, primarily by selecting the applicable law, but also by selecting the judicial or arbitral forum. The book focuses on the legal systems of the United States, the Commonwealth jurisdictions and the civil law countries of western and central Europe. This fascinating analysis will be welcomed by practitioners and scholars alike.

International commercial arbitration raises issues other than the choice of the law applicable to the principal contract. Autonomy may have a wider meaning, extending beyond the choice of applicable law to the choice of arbitration itself, and of the place or places where it is to be conducted. Nor is it altogether clear what the forum is, if any. This paper raises the fundamental question of what gives the arbitrator his or her competence--the will of the parties or the law of the seat of arbitration which the parties may, or may not, have chosen? The paper also suggests an answer to the...