Cite as: 510 U. S. 443 (1994)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
to comply with the local statutes at every port, are not diffi-cult to see. . . . [T]he Union was formed with the very definite design of freeing maritime commerce from intolerable restrictions incident to such control." Washington v. W. C. Dawson & Co., 264 U. S. 219, 228 (1924). Accord, The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. 558, 575 (1875); Jensen, 244 U. S., at 215-217.
Louisiana's open forum policy obstructs maritime commerce and runs the additional risk of impairing relations among the States and with our foreign trading partners. These realities cannot be obscured by characterizing the defense as procedural. See ante, at 452-454; but see Bickel, 35 Cornell L. Q., at 17 ("[T]he forum non conveniens problem . . . is inescapably connected with the substantive rights of the parties in any given type of suit, rather than . . . 'merely' an 'administrative' problem"). The reverse-Erie metaphor, while perhaps of use in other contexts, see Off-shore Logistics, Inc. v. Tallentire, 477 U. S. 207, 222-223 (1986), is not a sure guide for determining when a specific state law has displaced an essential feature of the general maritime law. See Exxon Corp. v. Chick Kam Choo, 817 F. 2d 307, 319 (CA5 1987) ("drawing conclusions from metaphors is dangerous"). Procedural or substantive, the forum non conveniens defense promotes comity and trade. The States are not free to undermine these goals.
It is true that in Missouri ex rel. Southern R. Co. v. Mayfield, 340 U. S. 1 (1950), we held the state courts free to ignore forum non conveniens in Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) cases. But we did not consider the maritime context. Unlike FELA, a domestic statute controlling domestic markets, the admiralty law is international in its concern. A state court adjudicating a FELA dispute interposes no obstacle to our foreign relations. And while the Jones Act in turn makes FELA available to maritime claimants, that Act says nothing about forum non conveniens. See 46 U. S. C. App. § 688.
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