ABSTRACT
Few things complicate the law as much as a project to simplify it. Not so long ago, a statement of the rules that dened and regulated the jurisdiction of an English court could be made, and explained, in a modest number of pages. If the defendant was in England and was served with the writ, the fact of service founded the jurisdiction of the court; and if the court had jurisdiction, it would exercise it. If the defendant was not in England, making service upon him would depend on rst obtaining leave,1 the process for doing (or for subsequently defending) which was a little more involved; but by and large a single set of rules applied to all defendants alike, and to all actions in personam.
