Theory and Practice of Adjudicatory Authority in Private International Law: a Comparative Study of the Doctrine, Policies and Practices of Common- and Civil-law Systems by Arthur T. Von Mehren

• Publication year: 2022

38 Creighton L. Rev. 995. THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ADJUDICATORY AUTHORITY IN PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE DOCTRINE, POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF COMMON- AND CIVIL-LAW SYSTEMS BY ARTHUR T. VON MEHREN

Creighton Law Review

Vol. 38

BOOK REVIEW

Reviewed By Patrick J. Borchers(fn*)

Reviewing Professor Arthur von Mehren's brilliant book(fn1) brought to mind the stretch we spent in the Hague in June of 1996. Professor von Mehren was there in the most visible of roles as a prominent member of the United States delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law. I was there in the most invisible of roles as a Recording Secretary to the Special Commission that began the investigation of the possibility of a convention on international jurisdiction and the effects of foreign judgments in civil and commercial matters.

The confluence is significant because Theory and Practice of Adjudicatory Authority is the printed version of the General Course that Professor von Mehren gave the next month at the Hague Academy. In part, his lectures were designed to set a framework for mutual understanding of the jurisdictional boundaries of each major tradition. The printed version, however, did not appear until late 2002 (and then in separate book form in 2003) and the intervening six years proved to be interesting ones indeed.

To begin with his Epilogue, von Mehren casts some important light back on the reasons that the Hague Conference project has stalled. Many judgments conventions are single, or "simple," conventions, regulating the exercise of adjudicatory authority only at the recognition stage. These conventions are the easiest to conclude because they accomplish the least. They do nothing to directly restrain the exercise of adjudicatory authority. Essentially all they do is to provide advance notice of the circumstances under which the courts of one nation will enforce the judgments of another. Even a court operating under the most exorbitant of jurisdictional rules is unconstrained if the judgment can be enforced without the aid of any other court.

At the other end of the spectrum lie double conventions. Double conventions are the most ambitious and difficult to conclude, because they operate both directly and indirectly. They limit directly the exercise of jurisdiction by the...