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- Title
STEPPING BACK TO MOVE FORWARD: EXPANDING PERSONAL JURISDICTION BY REVIVING OLD PRACTICES.
- Authors
DEMARTINI, MATTHEW P.
- Abstract
This Comment analyzes personal jurisdiction through the lens of Bristol- Myers Squibb v. Superior Court. Courts have, for years, been split on the degree of relatedness required between the claim and the defendant's contacts with a forum when analyzing specific jurisdiction. While the Supreme Court recently intervened in an attempt to clarify the issue and articulate a single test for relatedness, this Comment argues that the Court's entire personal jurisdiction framework is flawed. The main problem is an overemphasis on the defendant's contact with the forum. The result of this emphasis is that courts rarely, if ever, consider fairness as a dispositive factor in the analysis. And when courts try to expand the scope of jurisdiction under this contact-focused approach, the resulting opinions can be confusing or otherwise flawed. This Comment argues that the best way to expand the scope of state personal jurisdiction is to return to a mélange approach, under which each factor weighing on the overall fairness of exercising personal jurisdiction is considered alongside the others. This approach has several advantages over the Court's current framework. Expanding personal jurisdiction through the mélange would reduce the resources currently being spent on pre-discovery litigation, and would allow more cases to move forward past the pleading stage and closer to being resolved on their merits. Reducing litigation costs would in turn encourage access to courts. Furthermore, because the mélange considers the forum state's interest in adjudicating a case as a coequal factor, it encourages courts to consider the role of states as separate sovereigns. Finally, the mélange would promote a fairness-based view of due process by making fairness the central question to be asked and answered in every personal jurisdiction case.
- Subjects
PERSONAL jurisdiction; DEFENDANTS; FAIRNESS; BRISTOL-Myers Squibb Co.; DAIMLER AG v. Bauman; INTERNATIONAL Shoe Co. v. State of Washington (Supreme Court case); ACTIONS &; defenses (Law)
- Publication
Emory Law Journal, 2018, Vol 67, Issue 4, p809
- ISSN
0094-4076
- Publication type
Article