Protectionist legislation and the export of laws offshore: A legal analysis of U.S.'s attempts to restrict offshore outsourcing

The global phenomenon of offshore business process outsourcing has been blamed for the loss of American jobs to developing countries such as India and the Philippines. This has led the U.S. legislators at both the federal and state levels to introduce protectionist legislation restricting offshoring to protect the American labor market. This thesis will argue that under the principles of U.S. domestic and international law, the attempts to restrict offshore outsourcing will riot withstand legal scrutiny. It will contend that U.S. can export its regulatory laws offshore only within the limits of "reasonableness" as prescribed by U.S.'s Restatement of Foreign Relations Law and within the standards set by prevailing case law on choice of law questions. Finally, it will analyze the legal implications of a hypothetical scenario where U.S. attempts to apply its regulatory laws extraterritorially to cover non-citizens working overseas for service providers controlled by U.S. companies.