U.S. Foreign Relations Law Approved

ALI Members voted today to approve the Jurisdiction, Treaties, and Sovereign Immunity portions of the Restatement of the Law Fourth, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States project.* This completes these three portions of the project, which updates the influential Restatement of the Law Third, The Foreign Relations Law of the United States.

Published in 1986, the Restatement Third has been cited a great deal by the courts.  However, much had changed in the three decades that followed; ALI decided to re-examine this area of law in 2012. When the Restatement Fourth was started, the focus was on three areas of law: the United States law of jurisdiction, of immunities, and of treaties.

The project was led by Coordinating Reporters Sarah H. Cleveland of Columbia Law School (also a Reporter on Treaties) and Paul B. Stephan of University of Virginia School of Law (also a Reporter on Jurisdiction), Jurisdiction Reporters William S. Dodge of University of California, Davis School of Law and Anthea Roberts of Australian National University; Sovereign Immunity Reporters David P. Stewart of Georgetown University Law Center and Ingrid Wuerth of Vanderbilt University Law School; and Treaties Reporters Curtis A. Bradley of Duke University School of Law and Edward T. Swaine of George Washington University Law School.

Congratulations and thank you to the Reporters, Advisers, and ALI members who gave so much of their time to complete the Treaties, Sovereign Immunity, and Jurisdiction sections of the U.S. Foreign Relations Law project. 

Learn more about the Tentative Drafts of Jurisdiction, Sovereign Immunity, and Treaties that were approved.

*All approvals by membership at the Annual Meeting are subject to the discussion at the meeting and usual editorial prerogative.

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