[Hague-jur-commercial-law] Contracts that restrain competition or impede the transfer of technology

[Michael Sondow]

James Love wrote:

> CPTech is concerned that the proposed Hague Convention on
> Jurisdiction has been repositioned to introduce sweeping
> changes in international contract law, making nearly all
> contractual choice of court provisions automatic and
> enforceable, undermining national discretion on a number of
> sensitive and controversial policy issues.  This, combined
> with the very strong provisions regarding enforcement of
> foreign judgments is a recipe for a new round of bold forum
> shopping.

You can say that again! The Convention has become a give-away to
multinationals. There's nothing in it at all that protects the myriad of
small and medium-sized businesses that have to deal with cross-border
trade, much less consumers who will never be able to afford foreign
litigation. This so-called convention is nothing more than a revision of
international law by the corporate lawyers of the American Bar
Association and their brethren across the globe.

M. Sondow
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      "Lawyers come to think of administrative law and the 
    administrative process as significant and worthy of study
    only in those areas where private interests think it worth
    their while to demand protection. As a consequence lawyers 
    seeking for their clients elaborate procedural protection 
    modeled on the judicial process may, in an excess of 
    generalizing zeal, induce legislatures, administrative 
    agencies, and courts to extend such procedures into areas 
    where they are alien and inappropriate."

                   -- Jaffe & Nathanson, "Administrative Law"
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