jurisdiction
Pluraljurisdictions (some meanings)
- 1The power of a court or official to determine what the law means and how it applies in a case.
The federal court has jurisdiction to hear cases involving constitutional questions.
Without proper jurisdiction, the judge cannot rule on the lawsuit.
Similarauthority, power, competence
- 2The territory or limits within which legal authority may be exercised.
The suspect fled beyond the city's jurisdiction before officers arrived.
Officers cannot make arrests outside their jurisdiction.
Similarterritory, area, district
Note
Applied to a place, the word works as an ordinary countable noun: a jurisdiction, many jurisdictions. The Economist (2013) uses it this way for the low-tax countries where firms shift their profits, treating a nation simply as a territory with its own rules. Keep it apart from the power itself: officers act outside their jurisdiction, but a body lacks jurisdiction over a matter.
- 3
- 4The authority of a sovereign power to govern or to make laws.
The treaty recognized the kingdom's jurisdiction over the disputed islands.
A nation exercises jurisdiction over everyone living within its borders.
Similarsovereignty, authority, dominion, control, rule
Note
Here jurisdiction belongs to a state or crown rather than to a court. Elizabeth Cary, writing in the 1620s about Edward the Second's favorite, says he "sway'd the jurisdiction of the state of England." Sway is a ruler's verb, and the pairing shows the word naming the whole power to govern, much broader than the courtroom sense of a judge's competence.
- 5The power or right to carry out a particular action as part of applying the law.
The magistrate had jurisdiction to issue the search warrant.
Only a higher court has jurisdiction to overturn the verdict.
Similarauthority, power, competence
Note
Here the word attaches to a single act rather than to a whole court: jurisdiction to hear, to issue, to extend. A common negative is without jurisdiction, as in Nemish v. King (2020), where the Social Security Tribunal's Appeal Division held it was "without jurisdiction to extend" a statutory time limit. The ruling means the body lacked the power to act at all, whatever the merits of the request.
Practice
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Origin
The word comes from Latin iūrisdictiō.