Term
| Personal Jurisdiction/General Jurisdiction |
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Definition
Personal Jurisdiction courts can claim for
* their citizens (in or outside their territory)
* people or businesses within their territory
* non citizens outside of their territory who have caused harm within their territory. |
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Term
| How do the criteria for general and specific jurisdiction differ? |
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Definition
General
*Defendant's contact with the state, if unrelated to the cause of action, must be continuous and systematic.
Specific
1. The defendant must have purposely availed of the forum state's benefits
2. The claim must arise out of the defendant's contacts with the forum
3. The exercise of jurisdiction must be consistent with due process notions of "fair play" and "substantial justice." |
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Term
| What is due process? How is it guaranteed? Why is it important in the jurisdictional cases? |
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Definition
*It is the fair application of legal procedures.
*Guaranteed in the constitution's 1th and 14th: no person may be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."
* A court may exercise specific jurisdiction over someone without violating due process if the controversy arises out of the defendant's contacts with the forum state. |
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Term
| Is it sufficient for a court to have a connection with the plaintiff to assert jurisdiction? |
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Definition
| No. A court will not assert jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant based on the court's connection with the plaintiff. |
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Term
| How does the American concept of due process lead it to treat jurisdiction differently than other parts of the world? |
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Definition
| Has to do with forseeability. Do they have link to defendant? For due process, court must have link with defendant, not just plaintiff. |
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Term
| How has the treatment of jurisdiction evolved with respect to the Internet? |
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Definition
| At first jurisdiction was based on if the site was accessible in the forum. Now the website operator's contact with the forum is accessed on a sliding scale, based on the level of commercial activity and and interactive ability. The zippo test helps decide. At one end is regularly exchanging files and entering into contracts - the other end is passive websites (posting info with no interactivity). In the middle is an interactive site. The court decides how interactive and commercial nature of exchange of information. |
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Term
| Why do some people suggest geolocation filtering may be used to avoid problems related to conflict of laws at the international level? What problems would it present? |
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Definition
Benefit: Avoid litigation
Problems: Overuse would prevent the web from doing what it was designed to do: disseminate information. |
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