Jurisdiction

Uncommon card · No. 144692

Jurisdiction (from Latin juris 'law' and dictio 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority held by a legal entity to enact justice. Jurisdiction is rarely claimed to be complete: rather it is limited for example by geography, subject matter, or other factor. It is only within the scope (inside the limits) of such jurisdiction that, for example, the parties to a dispute have standing to bring the matter (a legal question) before a judge, who has power (or 'jurisdiction') to decide it authoritatively. A "jurisdiction" can also be understood as a category name for any separate polity legally constituted as such — for any government with legislative and other legal power over a particular territory, whether that area is a nation state or some smaller region. Thus, Australia, Arizona, North Yorkshire and New York City are each "a jurisdiction". In federations like the United States, jurisdiction in this polity sense applies at multiple levels (e.g., local, state,...

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