How Do Judges Interpret Foreign Law?
by The Federalist Society
Posted September 03, 2010, 10:54 AM
Eugene Volokh has a post on Volokh Conspiracy this morning noting a contracts decision in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in which Judges Eastebrook, Posner, and Wood debated the way in which foreign law is interpreted in U.S. courts. Judges Easterbrook and Posner argue that courts should rely on English-language translations and treatises to determine what the foreign law actually is, whereas Judge Wood contends that such a method could lead to mistakes in interpretation and thus that judges can allow the parties to use experts to offer potentially competing interpretations of foreign law.