abstract:Federal common law is a term of United States law used to describe common law that is developed by the federal courts, instead of by the courts of the various states. The United States is the only country to combine the creation of common law doctrines with a complete federalism, wherein the national supreme court has virtually no power to review state court decisions to determine whether the state courts have followed state laws.
The critical issue here, which certainly transcends Big Pharma, is whether under federalcommonlaw, third-party beneficiaries can sue government contractors to enforce the statutory requirements with which those businesses contractually pledged to comply.