Law Commons^™

A Fork In The Stream: The Unjustified Failure Of The Concurrence In J. Mcintyre Machinery Ltd. V. Nicastro To Clarify The Stream Of Commerce Doctrine, Cody Jacobs

Faculty Scholarship

This article critiques the concurring opinion in the recent United States Supreme Court personal jurisdiction decision in J. McIntyre Machinery Ltd. v. Nicastro. That opinion declined to choose between the competing approaches to the stream of commerce doctrine because of perceived flaws in those approaches and because the facts of Nicastro did not involve modern technology.

Consumer products are increasingly distributed through international distribution chains. Whether foreign manufacturers who utilize such chains are amenable to personal jurisdiction in states where their products are distributed has become a hotly litigated issue because of the Supreme Court’s 4-4-1 split decision over 20 …