Day 15 - Navona and revists
Nice big piazza, return engagements, and subway fun.
So what should we do tonight?:
June 15, 2005 in Rome
School was a little more fun today than it has been. In our international civil litigation we divided the class into three groups: one to represent the plaintiffs, one for defense, and one for the judges. I was on the plaintiff (Burmese villagers) side of things, and we were to argue that U.S. courts have jurisdiction over a French holding company with many subsidiaries, including one in Burma that was responsible for hiring the military to get a natural gas pipleine built. The pipeline work was done with forced labor, which was accompanied by rape, murder, torture, seizure of people's homes, and other horrible stuff (all of which the company was aware would happen). The French company's only real tie to the U.S. is it sold 28% of the project to a California company. I am simplifying this, as it is actually more complicated, but you get the general idea. We had to argue the U.S. federal court has personal and subject matter jurisdiction over the French company. Our side won, although in real life the federal court actually found the U.S. courts did not have personal jurisdiction over the French company. Yes, this unfortunately was a real case.
After class Matt and I went to the Vatican to mail out another round of postcards, and afterwards were unsure of what to do. We looked in a guide book and decided the Piazza Navona wasn't too far away and walked there. Afrer looking around there for a bit we grabbed some pizza rosa and wandered around... leading us back past the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain.
Oh, you may be wondering what subject matter and personal jurisdiction are. Ask me in person, as I think it's a discussion that will take a little while and I'm not sure if I totally understand it either!
- Jay.
