109 Iowa L. Rev. Online 171 (2024)
Abstract
Litigation over forum selection clauses raise significant issues about fairness in contract doctrine, procedural machinations, and federalism. John Coyle’s important Article, “Contractually Valid” Forum Selection Clauses homes in on the problem of enforcing these clauses in federal court, particularly the issue of how federal courts should decide whether the clause is valid in the first place. This Response to Coyle’s Article highlights its accomplishments and pays particular attention to the choice-of-law issue: to what extent does state contract law control the validity, interpretation, and enforcement of a forum selection clause. This Response also ventures an explanation for why federal courts so often disregard state law and the federalism values that ought to give state law priority in this context.