Transnational Litigation: Is There A "Field"? A Tribute to Hal Maier

I was pleased to be asked to offer a few words in honor of my friend, Professor Hal Maier, on the occasion of his retirement from Vanderbilt University Law School. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Hal, not only because he has been a wonderful friend and colleague over the years, but also because he sparked my interest in a field to which I had only recently turned when we first met and one that now absorbs much of my time and attention. The "field"--if it can be characterized as such--is "international litigation" or "transnational litigation," and that reference itself raises the interesting question whether international civil litigation does in fact occupy a distinct field. I was recently asked to participate in a panel discussion on that question next spring at the American Society of International Law and was instantly reminded of early conversations that I had with Hal Maier in the mid-1980s on that subject.