A General Look at General Jurisdiction

Abstract

IIn reviewing the constitutionality of state assertions of personal jurisdiction, the Supreme Court has recognized two types of jurisdiction-general and specific Contacts between the defendant and the state that are not necessarily related to the suit form the basis of general jurisdiction, while specific jurisdiction rests on contacts that are either the direct cause of the action or at least related to the suit. The vast bulk of recent scholarly and judicial attention has focused solely on the issue of specficjurisdiction, leaving general jurisdiction a powerful yet largely unexplored theory. Professor Brilmayer and her co-authors examine the theory of general jurisdiction, its meaning and its rationales. They first discuss the traditional bases for general jurisdiction: domicile and place of incorporation or principal place of business, defendant'sforum activities, transient presence, consent, and property in the forum. As they evaluate the rationales underlying each basis, they highlight recurrent themes and analyze forum contacts that support general jurisdiction. Finally, they explore the contacts supporting general adjudicative jurisdiction that also justify legislative jurisdiction permitting the court to apply the forum's substantive law to the dispute.