Allstate Insurance Co. v. Hague

Allstate Insurance Co. v. Hague, 449 U.S. 302 (1981), was a conflict of laws case decided by the United States Supreme Court.

The plurality opinion found three important contacts: In a concurring opinion, Justice Stevens said there was no Full Faith and Credit violation unless application of forum law threatens national unity, and no Fourteenth Amendment due process violation unless application of the chosen law was totally arbitrary or fundamentally unfair.

Stevens proposed that the mere interpretation of a contract by one law or another would not threaten unity, alleviating any Full Faith and Credit Clause problem.

He identified two policies driving the Court's precedents: Powell did not disagree with Stevens's first prong because the defendant did business in Minnesota, and could be sued anywhere.

The opinion enunciated the test for whether there is a "significant aggregation of contacts" sufficient that "applying local law would not be fundamentally unfair", and "demonstrated how minimal this requirement is in practice".