Jim, I encourage you to "fight on" with this issue.  Very few sponsors fail
to understand the difficulty a state instutition of higher education faces in
accepting another state's body of law.  This issue comes up in most of our
contracts but usually is resolved amicably by removing the language.  see ya.

James L Bates 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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--
Kent Walker
Director of Research Administration
University of North Carolina-CH
Office of Contracts & Grants
440 West Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Voice:  919-962-1353
E-Mail:  xxxxxx@UNC.EDU