Opinion ID: 1540447
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: General and Specific Jurisdiction Distinguished

Text: We have distinguished between an express and an implied consent to the jurisdiction of a forum. The United States Supreme Court and legal scholars have also gone to great length to distinguish between the concepts of general jurisdiction and specific jurisdiction. [22] The concept of dividing jurisdiction into two categories described, as general and specific, was apparently first introduced by Professors Arthur von Mehren and Donald Trautman. See A. von Mehren & D. Trautman, The Law of Multistate Problems 654 (1965); von Mehren & Trautman, Jurisdiction to Adjudicate: A Suggested Analysis, 79 Harv.L.Rev. 1121, 1136 (1966). According to their jurisdictional model, [i]f a court asserted jurisdiction based on the affiliations between the forum and one of the parties without regard to the nature of the dispute, it was exercising general jurisdiction. If, on the other hand, a court asserted jurisdiction based on affiliations between the forum and the controversy, ... it was exercising specific jurisdiction. Twitchell, The Myth of General Jurisdiction, 101 Harv.L.Rev. 610, 611 (1988). [23] The United States Supreme Court has subsequently given recognition to this general/specific jurisdictional dichotomy. See Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. at 473 n. 15, 105 S.Ct., at 2182 n. 15; Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S.A. v. Hall, 466 U.S. 408, 414 nn. 8-9, 104 S.Ct. 1868, 1872 nn. 8-9 (1984); Calder v. Jones, 465 U.S. 783, 788, 104 S.Ct. 1482, 1486, 79 L.Ed.2d 804 (1984). Nevertheless, the legal scholars continue to debate the problems generated by the use and application of these terms. See Brilmayer, Related Contacts and Personal Jurisdiction, 101 Harv.L.Rev. 1444 (1988); Twitchell, A Rejoinder to Professor Brilmayer, 101 Harv.L.Rev. 1465 (1988). In the first portion of this opinion, we concluded that GenCorp has expressly consented to the general jurisdiction of the State of Delaware. However, for the purpose of discerning any implied consent to Delaware's jurisdiction, we will limit our inquiry to GenCorp's implicit consent to specific jurisdiction in the double derivative action brought by Sternberg. The question which we will address is whether a foreign corporation's ownership of a Delaware corporate subsidiary, constitutes a due process minimum contact which permits Delaware courts to assert specific jurisdiction over the foreign parent corporation in a double derivative action.