Toward a Unified Test of Personal Jurisdiction in an Era of Widely Diffused Wrongs: The Relevance of Purpose and Effects

Abstract

TOWARD A UNIFIED TEST OF PERSONAL JURISDICTION 603 "effects" test developed by the Supreme Court in the context of intentionally tortious activity committed in one state but having effects in another. 8 They also have evidenced uncertainty regarding the relationship between these two apparently distinct tests for personal jurisdiction. In the specific context of Internet activities, the courts sometimes have relied on new interpretations of one or the other of these established approaches to questions of personal jurisdiction, and sometimes have fashioned new tests not dependent upon either of them. Most recent literature in this area has focused on whether the commission of wrongs by the transmission of information over the omnipresent Internet should give rise to unique tests for personal jurisdiction and, if so, what those tests should be. 9 Our focus 8. See Calder v. Jones, 465 U.S. 783 (1984). 9. Some commentators have argued that current personal jurisdiction law is not suited to deal with the Internet.