Oxford University Press published Oxford Commentaries on American Law: Choice of Law (2016), the 26th book from Symeon Symeonides, the Alex L. Parks Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus at Willamette University College of Law.
Symeonides’s new book, his third published in the last three years, covers the choice-of-law part of Conflicts Law (or Private International Law); specifically the process of choosing the law that governs disputes that implicate the laws of more than one state or country. The central focus of the book is on American law, but its peripheral vision is comparative.
Divided into four parts, Part I discusses the federal framework and the impact of the Constitution on choice-of-law. Part II discusses the structure and operation of choice-of-law rules and the historical evolution of choice-of-law doctrine and methodology from the 19th century to the present, through the “revolution” of the 1960s. Part III, consisting of nine chapters, is the heart of the book and is devoted to choice of law in practice. The book examines what courts say, but especially what they do. It identifies the emerging decisional patterns and extracts from them tentative predictions about likely outcomes. Part IV reflects on the next step in the evolution of American conflicts law and offers proposals on the content and orientation of the new Conflicts Restatement, the drafting of which began as this book was completed.
About Symeon C. Symeonides
Symeon C. Symeonides is the Alex L. Parks distinguished professor of law and dean emeritus at Willamette University College of Law, where he teaches conflict of laws and international litigation and arbitration. His publications have been translated into six foreign languages and cited by the supreme courts of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. He is the recipient of four scholarly prizes and a Lifetime Achievement Award. Symeonides has drafted legislation for three states and the European Union and provided legislative advice to four foreign governments. He is president of the International Association of Legal Science and former president of the American Society of Comparative Law.
About Willamette University College of Law
Opened in 1883, Willamette University College of Law is the first law school in the Pacific Northwest. The college has a long tradition at the forefront of legal education and is committed to the advancement of knowledge through excellent teaching, scholarship, mentoring and experience. Leading faculty, thriving externship and clinical law programs, ample practical skills courses, and a proactive career placement office prepare Willamette law students for today's legal job market. According to statistics compiled by the American Bar Association, Willamette ranks first in the Pacific Northwest for job placement for full-time, long-term, JD-preferred/JD-required jobs for the class of 2014 and first in Oregon for the classes of 2012, 2013 and 2014. Located across the street from the state capitol complex and the Oregon Supreme Court in downtown Salem, the college specializes in law and government, law and business, and dispute resolution.