Foreign law in American courts — yes, no, or maybe?

There’s a movement afoot — mostly from my side of the political aisle — opposing the use of foreign law in American courts. Oklahoma, for instance, enacted an unusually broad ban on such use of foreign law. This ban was later struck down by a federal court on the grounds that part of the ban singled out Islamic law for special restriction. That, though, was a narrow objection, which the legislature could easily deal with by just banning foreign law without mentioning Islamic law. Indeed, after the federal court decision, Oklahoma enacted just such a narrower restraint on the use of foreign law by Oklahoma courts, as have other states. Still more state legislatures have considered the issue, andto serialize in a couple of weeks, I say something similar about the use of religious law in the American legal system.)

Comments

Eugene VolokhEugene Volokh teaches free speech law, religious freedom law, church-state relations law, a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, and an intensive editing workshop at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, tort law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy. Follow

Sign up for email updates from the "Confronting the Caliphate" series.

Content from Allstate This content is paid for by an advertiser and published by WP BrandStudio. The Washington Post newsroom was not involved in the creation of this content. Learn more about WP BrandStudio.