As a state institution, VCU is prohibited from accepting the laws of any
other state.  With institutions and agencies of other states, we remain
mute on the subject -- very seldom have any problem with that, though some
people we negotiate with have to kick it to their legal review.  (This
seems to apply of every state institution we deal with, no matter which
state -- not surprising!)  With commercial organizations, we require the
laws of our state -- the agreement is being performed here, so there is no
question that this jurisdiction is appropriate for our agreements.  We have
to put more effort into negotiations with many foundations on this subject,
although remaining mute is a successful strategy in many cases.

Chuck

At 11:57 AM 8/27/01 -0500, you wrote:
>There is a Louisiana statute which prohibits state agencies from agreeing
>to any provision in a contract which requires interpretation of the
>agreement according to the laws of another jurisdiction.  I am aware of
>other states which have similar laws, and we are usually able to resolve
>this issue when negotiating subawards with other public universities by
>agreeing to be silent on the choice of law.
>
>However, sponsors (usually commercial) will occasionally argue that
>universities in states other than Louisiana readily agree to be bound by
>the laws of another jurisdiction and consequently we are unreasonable in
>our position.  I would like to conduct a survey on the choice of law
>provisions in other states.  If you will share the information with me, I
>will compile a list of states which have a statutory choice of law
>requirement and post it to RESADM-L at a later date.  A list of states
>which have choice of law provisions would prove useful when this issue
>arises during contract negotiations.
>
>Jim
>________________________________________
>James L. Bates
>Director, Office of Sponsored Programs
>330 Thomas Boyd Hall
>Louisiana State University and A&M College
>Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
>Phone: (225)578-3386
>Fax: (225)578-5403
>e-mail: xxxxxx@lsu.edu
>
>
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Herbert B. Chermside, CRA
Director, Sponsored Programs Administration
Virginia Commonwealth University
PO BOX 980568
Richmond, VA  23298-0568
Express Delivery Only:
 Sanger Hall, Rm. 1-032A
 11th & Marshall Streets
 Richmond, VA  23219
Voice:  804-828-6772
Fax     804-828-2521
OFFICE e-mail   xxxxxx@VCU.EDU
Personal e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu
http://views.vcu.edu/ospa/

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 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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