Abstract

Jurisdictional discovery ties together three principles central to federal civil procedure: the right to broad discovery, the need for liberal notice pleading and the court's inherent power to determine its own jurisdiction. The device is also inextricably linked to complex constitutional and legislative policies regarding the jurisdictional reach of U.S. federal courts. The complicated and often hidden aspects of jurisdictional discovery make analysis difficult, and measures that may seem acceptable in theory turn out to be highly problematic in practice. Indeed, the concept of "limited ...