International Litigation
As the result of globalization, international business is booming. And with it, international lawsuits and the international law firms that handle them. Most of those lawsuits will be governed by the law of the country of one of the parties. But there are certain principles of international law that affect the outcome of those lawsuits.
What is international law? It's the principles contained in treaties and international conventions that make up the international legal system. For instances, where goods have been sold and bought by parties in different countries, the parties' rights may be governed by a multilateral treaty called the Convention on the International Sale of Goods ("CISG"). By its terms, the CISG applies to a sale of goods where purchasers and sellers are located in different countries who are signatories to the CISG. For example, a sale of good from China to the U.S. is covered by the CISG because both countries have signed the CISG.
Another treaty that applies in international litigation is the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil Or Commercial Matters (the "Hague Convention"). The Hague Convention applies where a party in one country wants to serve legal process on a party in another. It sets up a mechanism whereby the parties to the lawsuit enlists the help of their respective governments to serve the papers. The mechanism is expense and cumbersome to use, but there aren't many ways around it.
Mr. Pu's practice has a high component of international law suits. For example, he has handled lawsuits arising out of a joint venture agreement between a business in India and one in New York to provide software consulting; fraud involving an American company set up to buy ethanol from Brazil; and the trade in garments between China and the United States.
One of Mr. Pu's more unusual cases involved an international dispute between the concubines of a wealthy Shanghai banker. The banker died leaving no offspring by his wife; but he had concubines, a kind of second or third wife. The photograph is a family picture taken in the 1950s showing, from left to right in the middle row, the banker, his wife, his first concubine and Mr. Pu's client the second concubine. The younger people are children by the concubines.
For forty years, the concubines sought to gain possession of a large bank account in New York City. But their lawyers had been advancing claims under New York law, which doesn't recognize concubines. But Mr. Pu knew about such situations, and convinced the court that Chinese law governed the dispute.
Then, it was just a matter of establishing what China's law provided. Mr. Pu hired an professor from England to testify on behalf of Mr. Pu's client, an aging concubine. As a result, the forty-year dispute was settled. But Mr. Pu's client was a ninety-six-year old woman, who apparently had clung to life just to see the dispute resolved. Shortly after the settlement, she passed on, and the money went to her offspring.
What is international law? It's the principles contained in treaties and international conventions that make up the international legal system. For instances, where goods have been sold and bought by parties in different countries, the parties' rights may be governed by a multilateral treaty called the Convention on the International Sale of Goods ("CISG"). By its terms, the CISG applies to a sale of goods where purchasers and sellers are located in different countries who are signatories to the CISG. For example, a sale of good from China to the U.S. is covered by the CISG because both countries have signed the CISG.
Another treaty that applies in international litigation is the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil Or Commercial Matters (the "Hague Convention"). The Hague Convention applies where a party in one country wants to serve legal process on a party in another. It sets up a mechanism whereby the parties to the lawsuit enlists the help of their respective governments to serve the papers. The mechanism is expense and cumbersome to use, but there aren't many ways around it.
Mr. Pu's practice has a high component of international law suits. For example, he has handled lawsuits arising out of a joint venture agreement between a business in India and one in New York to provide software consulting; fraud involving an American company set up to buy ethanol from Brazil; and the trade in garments between China and the United States.
One of Mr. Pu's more unusual cases involved an international dispute between the concubines of a wealthy Shanghai banker. The banker died leaving no offspring by his wife; but he had concubines, a kind of second or third wife. The photograph is a family picture taken in the 1950s showing, from left to right in the middle row, the banker, his wife, his first concubine and Mr. Pu's client the second concubine. The younger people are children by the concubines.
For forty years, the concubines sought to gain possession of a large bank account in New York City. But their lawyers had been advancing claims under New York law, which doesn't recognize concubines. But Mr. Pu knew about such situations, and convinced the court that Chinese law governed the dispute.
Then, it was just a matter of establishing what China's law provided. Mr. Pu hired an professor from England to testify on behalf of Mr. Pu's client, an aging concubine. As a result, the forty-year dispute was settled. But Mr. Pu's client was a ninety-six-year old woman, who apparently had clung to life just to see the dispute resolved. Shortly after the settlement, she passed on, and the money went to her offspring.