At 11:45 AM 9/4/01 -0500, you wrote:
>I want to thank those who responded to my question on choice of law
>provisions in your state.  For your convenience, I have copied my question
>to the listserve below:
>
>    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.
>
>Unfortunately, I did not ask the question as clearly as I should have.
>Please take a moment to fill in the blanks below and respond directly to
>me.  I will compile a list of responses and post it to the RESADM-L.
>
>1.  Your state:  Virginia_______________________
>
>2.  Is your institution:  XX___ public   ___ private  (Clearly an
>important distinction)
>
>3.  Will your institution agree to a contract provision which requires
>interpretation of the agreement according to the laws of another
>state/country:  ___ yes  xxx!!!__ no
>
>4.  If the answer is no to question 2, is your refusal based on:  ___
>institutional policy  ___ state law

The interpretation and guidance of the Attorney General -- over MANY years
(it was long standing before I joined state service 30 years ago)  --  has
been that Virginia is sovereign, and should not accept the laws of another
jurisdiction, but, to the best of my knowledge, it is not "black letter" law.

>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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