Re: Choice of Law Herbert B. Chermside 04 Sep 2001 12:15 EST
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 > > >====================================================================== > 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") >====================================================================== 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/ ====================================================================== 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") ======================================================================