Exclusive jurisdiction exists in

civil procedure Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and regulations along with some standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or ca ...

if one court has the power to adjudicate a case to the exclusion of all other courts. The opposite situation is

concurrent jurisdiction Concurrent jurisdiction exists where two or more courts from different systems simultaneously have jurisdiction over a specific case. United States In the United States, state courts are presumed to have concurrent jurisdiction in federal matt ...

(or non-exclusive jurisdiction) in which more than one court may take jurisdiction over the case. Exclusive jurisdiction is typically defined in terms of subject matter. For example, gives the

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

s exclusive jurisdiction over all matters arising in

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

with a few exceptions. On the federal level, exclusive jurisdiction allows the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

to review the decisions in lower courts.

See also