By Paul Chan and Gopi Panchapakesan (June 29, 2017, 12:32 PM EDT) -- United States courts are often an attractive forum for potential foreign plaintiffs. The reasons are well-documented: Compared to foreign jurisdictions, the scope of civil discovery is generally much broader in the United States, and our statutory penalty and damage regimes often provide for far more generous recoveries than their foreign counterparts.[1] Moreover, foreign litigants can gain direct access to United States federal courts through diversity jurisdiction, even where the parties on both sides of the dispute are foreign citizens (sometimes referred to as "alienage jurisdiction").[2] And of course, federal courts have original jurisdiction over cases that implicate questions arising under the Constitution, federal statutes, and treaties.[3] Federal question jurisdiction applies to cases arising under federal securities laws, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and the Alien Tort Statute, all statutes frequently invoked by foreign plaintiffs....