Subject-matter jurisdiction
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In civil procedure, the subject-matter jurisdiction of a court determines the kinds of claims or disputes over which it has jurisdiction, or the power to render a decision.
Subject-matter jurisdiction is to be distinguished from personal jurisdiction, which is the power of a court to render a judgment against a particular defendant. Subject-matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, and notice are the three requirements for a valid judgment.
[edit] State courts
In the United States, many state court systems are divided into divisions such as criminal, civil law, family, and probate. A court within any one of those divisions would lack subject-matter jurisdiction to hear a case regarding matters assigned to another division. Most U.S. state court systems, however, include a superior court that has "general" jurisdiction; that is, it is competent to hear any case over which no other tribunal has exclusive jurisdiction.
[edit] U.S. federal courts
Subject-matter jurisdiction is broadly developed in the United States federal courts, which derive their jurisdiction exclusively from the U.S. Constitution. The court's powers are defined by statute and the courts may not decide any case that is not within the constitutionally assigned jurisdiction. Litigants must show that they fall into one of two broad categories of subject-matter jurisdiction: diversity jurisdiction and federal question jurisdiction. According to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a federal court may dismiss a case for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction upon motion of a party or sua sponte, upon its own initiative. Lack of subject-matter jurisdiction cannot be waived.
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