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Old 09-19-2008, 10:30 AM   #120
Ak Mike
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Harry - criminal cases have special rules. First, a criminal case must be prosecuted by the government, which is limited to prosecuting matters that offended against it - in other words, that occurred within its jurisdiction. Second, for human rights reasons, criminal cases are normally required to be tried where the crime occurred.

These limitations do not pertain in civil matters. Right now I am handling a case in a U.S. state court arising from a commercial transaction that occurred in Germany. The limitation on civil cases is usually whether you can obtain personal jurisdiction over that person or company. If I appeared in London for a few hours of sightseeing before flying off to Paris, and your process server found me and served the papers, a British court would acquire personal jurisdiction over me, and you would be enabled to sue me for a matter that occurred anywhere in the world. U.S. rules give wide latitude to acquiring personal jurisdiction, and enable in many cases a person to sue in a U.S. court a company that has never appeared within the borders of the United States.

It is emphatically not true that a court has jurisdiction only over citizens of its country or companies registered there. "Personal jurisdiction" is a concept completely different from citizenship or registration, and much broader.
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