Competing Lawsuits Are A Go

Legal Issues

from the jurisdiction-shopping dept

While some people are saying that questions about legal jurisdiction online are easily settled using international law, it would appear that not everyone agrees. Michael Geist has a new column looking at the recent decision in US courts concerning Yahoo’s years old battle with France over war criminal charges. Geist points out that, basically, the jurisdiction question still isn’t settled and suggests we may still see “competing” lawsuits in different countries. So, if you get sued in the UK for libel on the internet, even if the content and neither side involved in the case is actually in the UK, you can then sue in the country of your choice to fight over whether or not the UK has jurisdiction. Of course, who’s to say that the second jurisdiction then has say over the original jurisdiction? It certainly seems like it could get quite messy.