This is an interesting thread since I have been involved in efforts to
encourage greater collaboration between US institutions and their
counterparts in the European Union.  I would therefore be interested to
know how you deal with international agreements in terms of governing
law, jurisdiction, arrangements for arbitration etc.

>From where I sit on a small island that is a member of the European
Union through which we have many research collaborations with partners
in other EU countries, we have had to develop a measure of flexibility
in how we approach these issues.  As you can imagine, if being asked to
accept the law/jurisdiction of the state next door which operates within
the same legal system and in the same language gives rise to
difficulties, within Europe with its multiplicity of legal codes and
languages this is a non-trivial issue.

It may also be of interest to know that in many parts of the world,
where there is not the same confidence in the impartiality of the legal
process, it is not unusual to draft agreements so that any legal
proceedings will take place in a neutral third-party jurisdiction.

Best wishes

R
--
Richard Tomlin                       |    Centre for Higher
 |    Education Research,
tel: (+44)(0)191 222 6820            |    Joseph Cowen House,
fax: (+44)(0)191 222 8170            |    University of Newcastle,
e-mail: xxxxxx@ncl.ac.uk     |    Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK.

 http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/richard.tomlin

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