Originally Posted by Nazdoom

Governing law and choice of legal forum clauses are standard in boilerplate terms of use, as well as commercial contracts more generally. The jurisdictions do not need to be the same. Broadly speaking, there is a distinction between procedural law and substantive law. Courts generally won't hear a matter unless that court is the most convenient forum for the dispute to be heard (a responding party can specifically raise forum non conveniens to get the non conveniens court to throw out the case), based on factors such as accessibility of the parties and witnesses and proximity to where the disputed activity occurred, but a court can and routinely does resolve disputes using substantive law of another jurisdiction as set out under the governing law clause. Arbitration according to sharia law has been accepted in Canada, for example, and tons of disputes in Canadian courts are settled according to NY or CA law, etc.

Not legal advice.