Federal common law and gaps in federal statutes: the case of ERISA plan limitation periods for section 502(a)(1)(B) actions.

Michigan Law Review, November, 1994 by Greiner, Jim

The issue of whether the courts should enforce limitation period clauses for actions under Employee Retirement Income Security Act section 502(a)(1)(B) can be used as a case study for developing more coherent federal preemption analysis. For these limitation clauses, the federal courts should adopt a uniform national rule enforcing the clauses instead of considering state law. Factors considered in the analysis include whether the area of law is usually a state law area, jurisdictional issues, existing federal statutes, uniformity and forum-shopping concerns.

[W]here power of choice [between state and federal lawl exists, what are the criteria for its exercise; under what circumstances should a federal substantive rule be prescribed, and when should state law be...

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