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09-1892 Bodum USA, Inc., v. La Cafetiere, Inc.

By: dmc-admin//September 3, 2010//

09-1892 Bodum USA, Inc., v. La Cafetiere, Inc.

By: dmc-admin//September 3, 2010//

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Civil Procedure
Foreign law; expert testimony

Expert testimony about the meaning of foreign law is unnecessary when the foreign law at issue is France’s.

“Sometimes federal courts must interpret foreign statutes or decisions that have not been translated into English or glossed in treatises or other sources. Then experts’ declarations and testimony may be essential. But French law, and the law of most other nations that engage in extensive international commerce, is widely available in English. Judges can use not only accepted (sometimes official) translations of statutes and decisions but also ample secondary literature, such as treatises and scholarly commentary. It is no more necessary to resort to expert declarations about the law of France than about the law of Louisiana, which had its origins in the French civil code, or the law of Puerto Rico, whose origins are in the Spanish civil code. No federal judge would admit ‘expert’ declarations about the meaning of Louisiana law in a commercial case.”
“Trying to establish foreign law through experts’ declarations not only is expensive (experts must be located and paid) but also adds an adversary’s spin, which the court then must discount. Published sources such as treatises do not have the slant that characterizes the warring declarations presented in this case. Because objective, English-language descriptions of French law are readily available, we prefer them to the parties’ declarations. See Sunstar, Inc. v. Alberto-Culver Co., 586 F.3d 487, 495-96 (7th Cir. 2009); Abad v. Bayer Corp., 563 F.3d 663, 670-71 (7th Cir. 2009).”

Affirmed.

09-1892 Bodum USA, Inc., v. La Cafetiere, Inc.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Kennelly, J., Easterbrook, J.

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