Cross-Border Contracts: Governing Law and Jurisdiction or Forum Clauses Same Country/Different Country? How Do You Decide?

We recently hosted our quarterly Wine and Wisdom event at our offices in Geneva to discuss on an informal basis the above questions because many times contract drafters confuse governing law clauses and jurisdiction clauses. They are related and not the same. This confusion certainly exists with purely domestic contracts, but there is a greater likelihood of confusion or overlap in the context of international contracts. We were happy to welcome lawyers from Switzerland, France, Russia, Australia, USA, UK and Spain to this lively and informing discussion. Because I and Olga are New York bar lawyers (Olga is also a Russian lawyer) the following summary will focus on the law of the State of New York because there is no U.S. contract law just as in Europe there is no “European” contract law.