The Comity Doctrine, Introduction

Hessel Yntema’s Essay on the Comity Doctrine, published in a Festschrift in Europe, deals with the origin and the meaning-or meanings-of a doctrine which has had a truly extraordinary impact on American conflicts law. For this reason and because of the stature of the author, the Essay is entitled to a special place in our literature on the Conflict of Laws. The Michigan Law Review has decided, as a memorial to the great Michigan Scholar, to reprint the Essay so that it may be more easily accessible.

Written for other purposes, the Essay does not discuss the place which the comity doctrine has occupied in American conflicts law. At the suggestion of the Editors, a short account of the historic travels of the comity doctrine is given as an introduction to the “domestication” of the Yntema Essay.