The two factors most closely associated with higher liability costs are the number of lawyers and whether the country has a common-law system like the U.S., where judges decide much of the law governing liability or a civil law tradition, where the rules are set down in a relatively unchanging civil code.

FORBES: Study Pins Higher U.S. Liability Costs On Lawyers, Court System

If you come from another American state, or from another country that practises English-style common law (in which precedents set by judges are all-important), it is a matter of mugging up and passing the New York bar exam.

ECONOMIST: Law and globalisation