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Christopher A. Whytock

Professor of Law

Joint appointment in Law and Political Science
Co-Director, Center in Law, Society and Culture

Christopher A. Whytock

Expertise:

Conflict of laws, transnational litigation, international law, empirical legal studies

Background:

Christopher Whytock is Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Irvine, and Co-Director of the UCI Center in Law, Society and Culture. Previously, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Zurich Law School, Director of Studies at the Hague Academy of International Law, and a Visiting Researcher at the Institut suisse de droit comparé.

In 2013, the American Law Institute appointed Professor Whytock to serve as an adviser on the new Restatement (Fourth) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States, and in 2014 the ALI appointed him to serve as an associate reporter for the new Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws. He also serves as a member of the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on Private International Law, a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Working Group on a Convention on Jurisdiction in Transnational Civil or Commercial Litigation, and an ALI adviser for the Uniform Law Commission’s Conflict of Laws in Trusts and Estates Act.

Professor Whytock’s research focuses on conflict of laws, transnational litigation, and international law. His scholarship has appeared in law journals including Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Duke Law Journal, New York University Law Review and University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and leading peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Theoretical Inquiries in Law and International Security. His books include Conflict of Laws (Sixth Edition) (with Peter Hay, Patrick J. Borchers & Symeon C. Symeonides), Research Handbook on the Politics of International Law (co-edited with Wayne Sandholtz), Transnational Law and Practice (First and Second Editions) (with Donald E. Childress III and Michael D. Ramsey) and Understanding Conflict of Laws (Fourth Edition) (with William M. Richman & William L. Reynolds).

Professor Whytock has taught courses on civil procedure, conflict of laws, international law, foreign relations law, and international relations theory.

Professor Whytock previously taught at the University of Utah College of Law and practiced law as an associate at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University; his J.D. and M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law; and his B.A. in political science from UCLA.

, Advanced Public International Law, International Legal Analysis

(Log in to view full course descriptions in the UCI Law Course Catalog)



Prof. Whytock's Scholarly Papers on SSRN

  • October 2024
    Presenter, Human Rights and Conflict of Laws, Annual Meeting of the American Society of Comparative Law
  • November 2024
    Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws, Preliminary Draft No. 9 (Property: Trusts), American Law Institute
  • April 2024
    International Studies Association’s 65th Annual Convention in San Francisco. Chair,“Transnational Cooperation in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries” Speaker, “The Global Legal System: Law, Politics and Transnationalism” on the “International Law and New Frontiers” panel
  • March 2023:
  • Panel Member, International Human Rights Award for Professor Wayne Sandholtz, Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, Montreal, Canada
  • January 2023:
  • “Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws, Tentative Draft No. 3,” presented at the
    Meeting of the Council of the American Law Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (with Kermit Roosevelt III & Laura Elizabeth Little).
  • October 2022:
  • Participant (Advisor), Uniform Law Commission Drafting Committee on Conflict of Laws in
    Trusts and Estates, Chicago, IL
  • October 2022:
  • The Proper Role of the Situs Rule in Choice of Law for Succession Issues, Symposium on
    Conflict of Laws in Trusts and Estates, Tulane University School of Law
  • May 2022: 
  • Public Lecture, “Transnational Forum Shopping and U.S. Courts,” presented at University of
    Zurich Law School, Zurich, Switzerland
  • May 2022: 
  • “Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws, Tentative Draft No. 3,” presented at Annual
    Meeting of the Membership of the American Law Institute, via Zoom, (with Kermit
    Roosevelt III & Laura Elizabeth Little).
  • April 2022: 
  • Discussant, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, UCLA
  • April 2022:
  • Participant (Advisor), Uniform Law Commission Drafting Committee on Conflict of Laws in
    Trusts and Estates, Chicago, IL
  • February 2022:
  • Panelist, “Deans in Conversation: Why Public Interest Law Matters,” National Consortium of
    Public Interest Law Schools, February 2022.
  • December 2021:
  • “The Many State Doctrines of Forum Non Conveniens,” presented at the Annual Meeting of
    the International Law in Domestic Courts Interest Group of the American Society of
    International Law, (with William S. Dodge & Maggie Gardner).
  • November 2021:
  • Chair and Discussant, Panel on Remedies and Enforcement, Midyear Meeting of American
    Society of International Law
  • November 2021:
  • “Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws, Preliminary Draft No. 7,” presented at
    Meeting of the Advisers and the Members Consultative Group, American Law Institute, (with Kermit Roosevelt III & Laura Elizabeth Little)
  • October 2021:
  • “Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws, Council Draft No. 5, presented at Meeting of
    the Council of the American Law Institute, via Zoom (with Kermit Roosevelt III
    & Laura Elizabeth Little).
  • June 2021:
  • “Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws, Tentative Draft No. 2,” presented at Annual
    Meeting of the American Law Institute, via Zoom, (with Kermit Roosevelt III &
    Laura Elizabeth Little).
  • May 2021:
  • “Choice of Law for Succession and Trusts Issues: The Approach of the American Law
    Institute’s Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws,” remarks at the meeting of the
    Uniform Law Commission’s Conflict of Laws in Trusts and Estates Drafting Committee
  • February 2021: 
  • Discussant, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, University of Southern
    California
  • Januaray 2021:
  • “Foreign Judgments and the Global Law Market,” Conference on the Global Law Market, Tel
    Aviv University, Israel
  • December 2020:
  • “Transnational Forum Shopping and U.S. Courts: A Theoretical and Empirical Reassessment,”
    Fordham University School of Law
  • October 2020:
  • “Transnational Forum Shopping and U.S. Courts: A Theoretical and Empirical Reassessment,”
    Law and Social Science Workshop, University of Southern California School of Law
  • July 2020
  • “The Transnational Litigation Puzzle,” Private International Roundtable, UC Davis School of
    Law
  • August 2020:
  • The Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws,” Max Planck Institute for Comparative and
    International Private Law, Hamburg, Germany
  • February 2020:
  • Participant, Undoing Racism Workshop, UC Irvine
  • February 2020:
  • Discussant, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, University of Southern
    California
  • Januaray 2020:
  • “The Restatement (Third) of Conflict of Laws,” Workshop on Current Developments in Private
    International Law, University of Barcelona
  • November 2019:“Restatement of the Law Third, Conflict of Laws, Preliminary Draft No. 5,” presented at
    American Law Institute, Philadelphia, PA, (with Kermit Roosevelt III & Laura Elizabeth Little).
  • June 2019: 
    Presenter, “Bias and Calibration in Foreign Judgment Recognition and Enforcement,” Private International Law Roundtable, University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill, NC
  • December 2018: 
    Invited Commentator, International Relations-International Law Graduate Workshop, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  • November 2018: 
    Presenter, “No Longer the Light for the Moth? The Declining Role of U.S. Courts in Transnational Litigation,” Vanderbilt Law School International Legal Studies Roundtable
  • April 2018: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts,” Southern Methodist University School of Law, Dallas, TX
  • May 2017: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts,” Korea University Law School, Seoul, South Korea
  • April 2017: 
    Discussant, Practitioners and Scholars in Dialogue: What Do We Know About the Civil Justice System, Civil Justice Research Institute, UCI Law, Irvine, CA
  • April 2017: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts,” International Law Colloquium, Center for Law and Global Affairs, Arizona State University College of Law, Phoenix, AZ
  • April 2017: 
    Presenter, “Judicial Parochialism and Cosmopolitanism: Foreign Judgments in U.S. Courts” (co-authored with Samuel Baumgartner), UC Irvine Socio-Legal Studies Workshop, Irvine, CA
  • February 2017: 
    Discussant, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
  • November 2016: 
    Introductory Remarks and Panel Chair, Conference on International Conflict of Laws and the Third Restatement, Duke Law School, Durham, NC
  • July 2016:
    Presenter, “Transnational Law and the Global Legal System,” Conference on Jessup’s Bold Proposal: Engagements with ‘Transnational Law’ after Sixty Years, King’s College London School of Law
  • April 2016:
    Presenter, “State Remedies for Human Rights,” Colloquium on International and Comparative Law and Politics, UC Berkeley School of Law
  • February 2016:
    Presenter, “Harmonization of EU Procedural Law: Is the US a Positive or Negative Model?” Conference on Common Rules and Best Practices in European Civil Procedure, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • February 2016:
    Discussant, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, UC Irvine School of Law
  • 2023 Best Civil Justice Article Prize by UC Berkeley Civil Justice Research Initiative, awarded for “The Many State Doctrines of Forum Non Conveniens,” 72 Duke Law Journal 1163 (2023) (with William S. Dodge & Maggie Gardner)