|
|
Article: Diversity of Citizenship
- Article from:
- West's Encyclopedia of American Law
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
DIVERSITY OF CITIZENSHIP
A phrase used with reference to the jurisdiction of the federal courts which, under the U.S. Constitution, Art. III,
§
2, extends to cases between citizens of different states designating the condition existing when the party on one side of a lawsuit is a citizen of one state and the party on the other side is a citizen of another state, or between a citizen of a state and an
alien.
The requisite jurisdictional amount must, in addition, be met.
Diversity of citizenship is one of the factors that will allow a federal district court to exercise its authority to hear a lawsuit. This authority is called diversity jurisdiction. It means that a case involving ...