validity of contracts in the USA signed outside of the USA?

Answer 1

This is a complex question that depends on the individual contract.

Contracts usually specify a venue under whose laws and juristiction the contract is drafted. For example, Yahoo!'s terms of service agreement specifies that the contract is valid under California law and disputes will be handled within (I believe) San Jose, CA.

If you make a contractual agreement with a person or firm, you should be able to find a clause to state under what laws the contract is drafted.

However, I am not a lawyer, but I have played one online for the past ten years. This should not be construed as legal advice; only a competent attorney can provide that.

Answer 2

This is a question of jurisdiction. In some cases, a US federal or state court will enforce a foreign contract based on a "long arm" statute, but usually it will not.

For example, if you signed a contract with a French company while you were in France, then a US court will probably tell you that you would have to go to a French court to sue to enforce the contract. The US court will refuse to hear your case.

On the other hand, if you were in the US when you originally saw the ad that enticed you to travel to France to sign the contract with the French company, then there was SOME nexus of activity that occurred within in the US (even though most of the activity in question occurred in a foreign country), so a US court might decide that it had jurisdiction over the contract.

If you are a US citizen and a resident of California, then that in of itself might be enough for you to sue in a CA state court.

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Long arm jurisdiction is a statutory grant of jurisdiction to local courts over foreign defendants. A state's ability to confer jurisdiction is limited by the Constitution. This jurisdiction permits a court to hear a case against a defendant and enter a binding judgment against a defendant residing outside the state's jurisdiction. That is, without a long arm statute, a state's court may not have personal jurisdiction over a particular defendant.

Generally, the authority of a court to exercise long arm jurisdiction must be based upon some action of the defendant which subjects him or her to the jurisdiction of the court. In the United States, some states long arm statutes refer to specific acts, for example torts or contract cases, which a court may entertain. Other states, like California, broadly grant jurisdiction "on any basis not inconsistent with the Constitution of this state or the United States."

The use of a long arm statute is usually constitutional where the defendant has certain minimum contacts with the forum state and there has been reasonable notice of the action against him or her.

Answer 3

Depends on several factors.
Some valid, some not...

Answer 4

not valid