International Legal Issues

Dealing With International Legal Issues

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Dealing With International Legal Issues

Issues involved in resolving legal disputes in international transactions.

Issues that come up involving legal disputes in international transactions are choice of law, statute of limitations, general procedure involved with notice and filing of law suits, or in other words, who has jurisdiction. The Asahi case is an example of whether jurisdiction can attach to foreign countries. Decided on February 24, 1997, Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court, 480 U.S. 102 (1987) was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, in which the court decided whether a foreign corporation, by merely being aware that its products could end up in the forum state and into the American "stream of commerce" which later caused injuries, satisfied the minimum contacts necessary to satisfy jurisdictional due process requirements In that case, Asahi Metal Industry, Co. was an international corporation based in Japan, which manufactured a valve used in the manufacture of motorcycle wheels. These valves were bought by Cheng Shin Rubber Industrial Co. a Taiwanese distributor. One of these valves was alleged to have failed, causing an accident in California. As a result of the accident the driver of the motorcycle sustained serious injuries and his wife, who was riding on the motorcycle as a passenger, was killed. The accident victim sued Cheng Shin in a California State court, and Cheng Shin in turn filed a third-party complaint (impleader) seeking indemnification from Asahi. Asahi contested California's personal jurisdiction over Asahi. The Supreme Court found that in this case, the burden on the defendant was severe based on both the geographic distance and legal dissimilarities between Japan and the United States

Practical considerations of taking legal action against a foreign business partner based in another...