Federal Jurisdiction Book Report

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The book states that the literal term of jurisdiction is “the power to speak the law.” Jurisdiction warrants a court to hear and decide on a course of action. The book classifies jurisdiction in three parts: persons, subject matter, and federal. Persons can be broken down further into two different parts. The first part is personam jurisdiction, or personal jurisdiction. This is jurisdiction over a person or business in a specific geographic area. The second part is in rem jurisdiction, which is jurisdiction over property. The dispute would be settled in the district in which it occurred. The residence of the parties is not necessarily a relevant factor in these situations. Each state has a long arm statute, which give courts jurisdiction …show more content…
General jurisdiction can decide over cases under a spectrum of issues. The book gives two examples of general jurisdiction – state trial court and federal district court. The limitations could include: subject of the lawsuit, the amount of the controversy, whether it involves a felony, or if it is a trial or an appeal. Federal jurisdiction is limited on what they can oversee. Basically anything involving federal questions or diversity of citizenship. This means that the defendant and plaintiff must reside in separate states, and the dollar amount of controversy must exceed $75,000. After reading the text and assigned readings for this week, my general idea of what jurisdiction is that after determining the type of case being presented, it is then allocated to the correct court to oversee and decide on a course of action. Anything involving personal, misdemeanors, family court, etc. would be jurisdiction of state circuit court. Anything that would be in violation of the constitution, foreign affairs, etc. would be jurisdiction of federal court. The federal court has three tiers: US District Court, US Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme