The Germans of Geilenkirchen-Hengesburg region of Germany were convinced by relative and friend, Father Peter Leonard Thevis, of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, to emigrate to the United States for a number of reasons: political, religious, and economic. After establishing themselves on land previously used for grazing cattle, the Germans soon discovered rice could easily be cultivated in large amounts. Along with their success as rice farmers in Roberts Cove, Louisiana, these Germans soon involved themselves in politics and engaged one another and the surrounding community in numerous court cases. These court cases, overlooked by previous historians, demonstrate that the Germans of Roberts Cove had begun to assimilate, prior to World War I and the passage of anti-German legislation.

Šis magistro baigiamasis darbas skirtas teismų jurisdikcijų kolizijų civilinėse bylose, turinčiose užsienio elementą, bendrojoje tarptautinėje, užsienio ir Lietuvos teisėje įtvirtintos teisės normų reglamentacijos sukeliamų problemų analizei. Pagrindine tyrimo užduotimi autorius laiko po Lietuvos Respublikos tapimo Europos Sąjungos nare išaugusią užsienio elementą turinčių civilinių ginčų teismų jurisdikcijų teisingo nustatymo instituto svarbą įtvirtinančių tarptautinių, užsienio ir Lietuvos teisės normų nuostatų bei teismų jurisprudencijos įvertinimą bendrame pasauliniame kontekste. Darbą sudaro trys dalys. Pirmojoje dalyje išryškinama teismų jurisdikcijų kolizijos samprata, jos atskirų kriterijų reikšmė nustatant kompetentingą teismą ir tos teisminės institucijos priimtų sprendimų pripažinimą bei vykdymą. Taip pat detaliai susipažįstama su įvairių valstybių (Vokietijos, Prancūzijos, Lietuvos...) nacionalinių, pasaulinių (UNIDROIT Romos konvencija dėl pavogtų ar neteisėtai išvežtų kultūros objektų...) ir ES (Reglamento 44/2001…) teisės aktų bei Lietuvos Respublikos pasirašytų teisinės pagalbos sutarčių nuostatomis, įtvirtinančiomis civilinių bylų su užsienio elementu priskirtinumą konkrečioms teismų jurisdikcijoms. Antrojoje dalyje susipažįstama su Europos Teisingumo Teismo, Nuolatinio Tarptautinio Teisingumo Teismo, užsienio ir Lietuvos valstybių teisminių institucijų praktika. Aptariant šią praktiką bei pirmojoje dalyje aprašytus kriterijus, įvardijamos daugiausiai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The present thesis is devoted to the analysis of collisions of courts' jurisdictions in civil cases involving a foreign element and the analysis of the problems caused by the regulation of law norms confirmed in General International Law, Foreign Law and Lithuanian Law. After becoming an EU member state, the growth of civil contentions involving a foreign element is noticeable in the Republic of Lithuania. According to the author of this thesis, the main task of the thesis is considered to be the evaluation of the right determination institute of civil law jurisdictions importance confirmed by International, Foreign and Lithuanian Law norms regulation as well as the courts’ jurisprudence in the common world context. The thesis consists of three different parts. In the first part the author emphasizes the definition of collision of the courts’ jurisdiction and the importance of its separate criteria by identification of the qualified court, the recognition of its taken judgments and implementation. After that, national laws of different countries (such as Germany, France, Lithuania, etc.), international (UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, etc.) and the European Union (EU) (Council Regulation 44/2001, etc.) rules of law as well as some legal provisions from the international legal assistance treaties signed by the Republic of Lithuania, that deals with civil cases’ involving foreign element, attributability to the particular courts will be... [to full text]

The Priest-Klein model predicts that a decline in the plaintiff win rate might be explained by a change in stake asymmetry that favors the plaintiff; that is, the stakes for defendants increase. This lowers the plaintiff win rate because defendants increasingly look to settle cases they are less likely to win, leading them to only go to trial with cases they have a comparably higher probability of winning. We theorize a shift like this might have occurred between 1985 and 1995, as Lahav and Siegelman (2017) recently discovered that the plaintiff win rate fell from almost 70% in 1985 to just over 30% in 1995. Although they found that changing judicial caseloads and other factors represented a notable portion of the decline, they were unable to identify what drove the remaining 40%. We hypothesize that this unexplained decline was caused by increasing defendant stakes and examine two potential drivers of increasing stake asymmetry: changing judicial ideology and a rise in the number of Multi-District Litigation (MDL) cases, a type of case with higher defendant stakes. We find evidence consistent with the Priest-Klein model for MDL cases as these cases experienced lower adjudication rates, lower plaintiff win rates, and higher settlement rates. Additionally, we found that judicial ideology was substantially more important for MDL cases, suggesting that judges might make use of their greater influence in these cases to guide outcomes. Yet, while both MDL case status and judicial ideology were statistically significant predictors of plaintiff win rates, we found that neither explains a substantial portion of the decline. Thus, a large proportion of the decline found by Lahav and Siegelman remains a mystery.