Name the Governing Law for Each Issue

A jurisdiction is the legal system whose rules you are applying: a state, the federal system or a foreign country. A memo can read smoothly and still leave a reviewer unable to answer the first question they will ask: under which jurisdiction's law is this true?

AI drafting tools make this gap more common. They produce fluent rule statements such as "A party must bring a breach of contract claim within the limitations period" without saying which state's period, or whether anyone has decided that question yet. The sentence sounds finished, so it gets accepted.

This lesson sets a simple rule for the rest of the course. No AI-generated section is accepted until every rule in it is tied to a named jurisdiction and a source of law. You will break your memo into issues, record the law each one relies on and why, and mark the places where the AI text does not match.

You are not deciding which law should govern. That is the attorney's call. You are making the draft say what it relies on, so a reviewer can check it.

It is tempting to write "This memo applies New York law" once at the top and move on. But one matter often involves several jurisdictions, one per issue.

Take an example matter. Harlan Tool, an Ohio manufacturer, is suing a Texas supplier over defective parts. The supply agreement says New York law governs. The case is filed in federal court in Ohio. The memo has at least three issues:

• Breach of contract. The draft relies on New York law because of the contract's clause, and the attorney has instructed the team to proceed on that basis.
• Statute of limitations. Whether the clause reaches limitations, and whether Ohio's or New York's period applies, has not been decided. This is an open question.
• Procedure. Pleading and motion practice in federal court follow the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Three issues, three different answers to "whose law?" A single sentence at the top of the memo would have hidden the limitations question entirely. That is exactly the failure in the course problem.

For each issue, write down three things.

1. Jurisdiction. State, federal or foreign. Be specific, as in "New York," not "state law."
2. Source of law. The type of authority the rule comes from:
   • Statute: a law passed by a legislature.
   • Regulation: a rule issued by a government agency under a statute.
   • Case law: rules from court decisions.
   • Contract clause: for example a choice-of-law clause, a contract term saying which jurisdiction's law the parties want applied.
3. Reason relied on. Why the draft uses this law. Common reasons are the forum (the court where the case is filed), a choice-of-law clause, or the attorney's instruction.

The reason matters as much as the jurisdiction. "New York law" with no reason invites the question "says who?" "New York law, per section 14.2 of the supply agreement and attorney instruction dated March 3" answers it before anyone asks.

If you don't know the reason, that is information too. It usually means the choice hasn't been made yet.

Choosing the governing law is a legal judgment, and it belongs to the attorney. Your job, and the AI tool's job, is narrower. The draft has to state what it relies on, in one line per issue.

Use this pattern:

[Issue]: This draft applies [jurisdiction] [source] because [reason].

For example:

Breach of contract: This draft applies New York case law and statute because of the supply agreement's choice-of-law clause (§14.2), per attorney instruction.

When the choice has not been made, or the other side contests it, don't pick one to keep the prose clean. Say so:

Statute of limitations: OPEN. Not yet decided whether Ohio or New York's limitations period applies. Sections analyzing timeliness are provisional.

An open line is not a weakness in the memo. It tells the reviewer exactly where their judgment is needed. The confident memo in the course problem failed because it picked an answer silently instead of writing this line.

AI tools tend to write the rule as it is usually stated rather than as one jurisdiction states it. Watch for phrases like these:

• "Courts generally hold..."
• "The majority rule is..."
• "Under the discovery rule, the period begins when..."
• "The limitations period for breach of a sales contract is four years."

The last one may be correct in some states and wrong in others, and it says nothing about whether the period was tolled. Until a jurisdiction is attached, you can't tell which.

Treat any rule statement without a named jurisdiction as unaccepted. That doesn't mean it is wrong. It means it hasn't earned a place in the draft yet. Either assign it a jurisdiction from your issue list and verify it in that jurisdiction's sources, or cut it.

A general statement can also hide a mismatch. If your issue list says the contract issue relies on New York law, and the AI paragraph cites a "general rule" drawn from other states, the paragraph doesn't match the frame. That mismatch is the thing to catch.

Open your practice memo or a draft from a real or sample matter. Build a table with five columns:

Issue	Jurisdiction	Source of law	Reason relied on	Settled or open
Breach of contract	New York	Case law, statute	Choice-of-law clause §14.2; attorney instruction	Settled
Limitations	Ohio or New York?	Statute	Not decided	Open
Procedure	Federal	Federal Rules of Civil Procedure	Forum	Settled

Then go through the memo section by section. Mark any section where:

• the AI text states a rule with no jurisdiction,
• the jurisdiction in the text differs from the table, or
• the text treats an open row as settled. An example is a timeliness analysis that assumes one state's period, or assumes tolling.

A simple margin comment works: "Does not match table, row 2." You'll reuse this table in the next lesson, where it becomes part of the standing header at the top of the draft.