Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co

In Bremen v. Zapata Off-Shore Co., 407 U.S. 1 (1972), the United States Supreme Court held that forum-selection clauses are "prima facie valid and should be enforced unless enforcement is shown by the resisting party to be 'unreasonable' under the circumstances." Id. at 10. A forum-selection clause is "unreasonable" where a party can make a "strong showing" either that the forum thus selected is "so gravely difficult and inconvenient that he will for all practical purposes be deprived of his day in court," or that the clause was procured through "fraud or overreaching." Id. at 15-18.