Related Contacts for Specific Personal Jurisdiction over Foreign Defendants: Adopting a Two-Part Test

Braham Boyce Ketcham, University of Iowa

Abstract

To assert specific personal jurisdiction over a defendant, the plaintiff must show that the cause of action is “related to or arises out of” certain contacts between the defendant and the forum. The lower federal courts have struggled to apply this test in the years since it was first articulated, producing several different ways to assess relatedness. This Note addressed the existing approaches in the Circuit Courts of Appeal and will propose a new approach that best reconciles the various existing approaches. This Note focuses in particular on the recent Third Circuit decision in O’Connor v. Sandy Lane Hotel which provides an opportunity for the Supreme Court to review this issue.