Part I Choosing a Proper Court

Chapter 1 Personal Jurisdiction: The Enigma of Minimum Contacts 3

Chapter 2 Statutory Limits on Personal Jurisdiction: The Reach and Grasp of the Long-Arm 27

Chapter 3 Seeking the Home Field Advantage: Challenges to Personal Jurisdiction 47

Chapter 4 Federal Questions and Federal Cases: Jurisdiction over Cases “Arising under” Federal Law 63

Chapter 5 Diversity Jurisdiction: When Does Multiplicity Constitute Diversity? 89

Chapter 6 Personal and Subject Matter Jurisdiction Compared: The First Two Rings 109

Chapter 7 Second-Guessing the Plaintiff’s Choice of Forum: Removal 123

Chapter 8 Proper Venue in Federal Courts: A Rough Measure of Convenience 141

Chapter 9 Choosing a Proper Court: The Three Rings Reconsidered 159

Part II State Law in Federal Courts

Chapter 10 Easy Erie: The Law of Rome and Athens 177

Chapter 11 Eerie Erie: The Substance/Substance Distinction 201

Chapter 12 Erie and State Choice of Law: Vertical Uniformity and Horizontal Chaos 229

Part III The Scope of the Action

Chapter 13 Sculpting the Lawsuit: The Basic Rules of Joinder 253

Chapter 14 Into the Labyrinth: Joinder of Parties under Rule 14 271

Chapter 15 Essentials and Interlopers: Joinder of Parties under Rules 19 and 24 285

Chapter 16 Jurisdictional Fellow Travelers: Supplemental Jurisdiction 311

Chapter 17 Jurisdiction vs. Joinder: The Difference Between Power and Permission 333

Part IV Steps in the Litigation Process

Chapter 18 The Bearer of Bad Tidings: Service of Process in the Federal Courts 347

Chapter 19 Getting Off Easy: The Motion to Dismiss 369

Chapter 20 When Justice So Requires: Amendments to Pleadings under the Federal Rules 385

Chapter 21 The Scope of Discovery: The Rules Giveth, and the Rules Taketh Away 409

Chapter 22 Tools of the Trade: The Basic Methods of Discovery 435

Chapter 23 Defective Allegation or Insufficient Proof? Dismissal for Failure to State a Claim Compared to Summary Judgment 471

Chapter 24 The Judge and the Jury, Part One: Judgment as a Matter of Law (Directed Verdict) 493

Chapter 25 The Judge and the Jury, Part Two: Whose Case Is This, Anyway? 515

Part V The Effect of the Judgment

Chapter 26 Res Judicata (Claim Preclusion): The Limits of Procedural Liberality 539

Chapter 27 Res Judicata and the Rules of Joinder: When Does May Mean Must? 559

Chapter 28 Collateral Estoppel (Issue Preclusion): Fine-Tuning the Preclusion Doctrine 573

Chapter 29 The Obscure Kingdom: Nonmutual Collateral Estoppel 591

Part VI Thinking Procedurally: The Rules in Action

Chapter 30 An Introduction to the Pretrial Litigation Process: Setting the Stage for the Schulansky Case 613

Chapter 31 First Moves: Schulansky Goes to Court 625

Chapter 32 A Change of Forum: Ronan Removes to Federal Court 647

Chapter 33 The Defendants’ Perspective: Ronan’s Answer and Counterclaim 659

Chapter 34 Chain Reaction: Ronan Brings in Jones 675

Chapter 35 Preliminary Objections: Jones Seeks a Way Out 687

Table of Cases 707

Index 715