"STREAM-OF-COMMERCE" INADEQUATE TO FOUND JURISDICTION; ASAHI RESOLVED

Graydon S. Staring

Abstract

This article describes the division of the Spreme Court in the Asahi case in 1987 as to whether one who places an article in the "stream-of-commerce" without more thereby submits to the jurisdiction of the courts of a state in which it causes injury or damage; the conflicts on the point for years thereafter; the Court's resolution of the conflict in 2011 by deciding that the defendant's doing so without action purposefully directed toward that state is inadequate; reservations for the future by concurring justices and a dissent; and questions that must remain about the adequacy of such additonal actions in certain cases.