ABSTRACT
The creation of a court system is in large part the allocation of different kinds of jurisdiction to different courts; it is this distribution of jurisdiction that determines the relationships between and among the courts in the system. If we are to acquire a basic understanding of the American court systems, we must first understand the relevant concepts of jurisdiction. Further, since jurisdiction is essentially the power to do something, we must understand what it is that the courts in question may do; in other words, what functions do they have the power to perform?
