Summary of the Types and Common Tests for Legal Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction refers to the power that is granted to a formally constituted legal body to hearing a presented case and resolving issues. In other words, it refers to the power manage impartiality within a specified accountability area (236). Jurisdiction additionally denotes the physical location to which the power can be applied. There are three major types of legal jurisdiction which are territorial, personal as well as theme matter (237). In this context, personal jurisdiction can be described as the power over an individual, irrespective of their site. On the other hand territorial jurisdiction refers to the confined power to a restricted space that includes everything that is present and all the events that occur within the area. Contrary, subject matter is a jurisdiction type that refers to the power over the legal inquiries subject in relation to the event (236).
At times courts normally hold communal or exclusive jurisdiction. In this context, the court holds excluded authority over a given subject or territory and thus the situation can only be addressed by the court (Menthe 71). Where the court holds shared authority, a number exceeding a single court can address the issue. On the other hand, where shared authority is present, the engaged parties can attempt to participate in forum search by presenting the case to the court in which they project that it might address the issue in their favor. In America, authority is abstractly separated amid jurisdiction over the case’s subject issue and authority over personal authority (Menthe 71). When jurisdiction is exercised over a property situated within boundaries of its authority without the consideration of personal jurisdiction the plaintiffs is categorized as rem jurisdiction. Subject matter authority for some courts is usually limited to specified kinds of controversies for example where the presented monetarist value is less than the settled value. In times where the limitation does not exist this is referred to as general court jurisdiction (Menthe 71).
In establishing whether courts holds personal authority in entertaining a subject there are various factors as well as tests that are considered (Wang 4). The chosen tests which are conducted by courts differs from a single state to another and are continuously involved in transitions. These forces and tests include territoriality, general authority, idea, common sensibleness and contacts tests (Wang 4). Territoriality test is mainly exercised by the basic personal authority while the contact test is mainly utilized in measuring the amount of interaction that a certain offender has with a given state. This test in regard to interaction measurement is utilized in America as a civil process in establishing the appropriateness for the application of personal jurisdiction by the court over the offender (Wang 4).
On the other hand, general jurisdiction trails the norm that an individual can be prosecuted on the foundation of any claim even in relation to privileges that are not related to the offender’s association with a state (Wang 4). On the other hand, in a specific jurisdiction, the offender’s association with the opportunity state is highly restrained. This necessitates that any raised claim must arise from the interaction. In this jurisdiction the cases there should be several actions by which the general offenders purposely avails itself based on the given activities within the opportunity situation (Wang 4). In regard to idea test, the activities of the offender should be both purposely and charitable towards the nation (Wang 4).
Work Cited
Darrel C. Menthe, Jurisdiction in Cyberspace: A Theory of International Spaces,
4 Mich. Telecomm. Tech. L. Rev. 69 (1998) available at <http://www.mttlr.org/volfour/menthe.pdf>
Faye Fangfei Wang. Internet Jurisdiction and Choice of Law: Legal Practices in the EU, US and China. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
N.A. Chapter 8 - Dispute Resolution: Jurisdiction, Litigation, and ADR and Chapter 2 Innovations and Inventions.
