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Law, Equity, And Supplemental Jurisdiction, James E. Pfander, Peter C. Douglas

Notre Dame Law Review

As remedies scholars continue to reflect on the consequences of the 1938 merger of law and equity into one civil action, it may be worth pondering a second merger. In 1990, responding to a Supreme Court opinion that highlighted the absence of such authority, Congress adopted a statutory framework for the exercise of judge-made doctrines of pendent and ancillary jurisdiction. In the statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1367, Congress merged the two doctrines, lumping them together in a provision for the exercise of supplemental jurisdiction over claims that bear an appropriate relationship to civil actions within the district courts’ original jurisdiction. …