Predicting the Future: Personal Jurisdiction for the Twenty-First Century

Recently, a number of earthbound courts have had to determine whether they have personal jurisdiction over defendants who conduct their business in cyberspace. This article uses the emerging cyberjurisdiction caselaw to criticize the Supreme Court's Constitutional doctrine of personal jurisdiction, looking backward at where the doctrine has come from and forward to where it should be going. In particular, the article finds that the Court's increasing emphasis on the foreseeability of suit in the forum state paradoxically renders the outcome of any particular case unpredictable, not only for denizens of cyberspace, but for persons engaged in more mundane transactions. The article proposes doctrinal and procedural reforms needed to make the resolution of both analog and digital disputes more efficient and more just.