Jurisdiction v. Justiciability Flashcards
Differentiate between jurisdiction v. justiciability.
Jurisdiction refers to the constitutional or statutory competence for the court to hear, decide, and enforce specific cases. Absent this competence, any act of a court will be legal nullity, void, and, thus, unenforceable. The bases of a court’s jurisdiction can be the subject matter, the type of action, the parties, or the procedure or remedy involved.
Justiciability, on the other hand, results from the exercise of jurisdiction.
How can justiciability exist even though a court has jurisdiction on a certain case?
For policy reasons, a court with jurisdiction may decline to hear and decide a case. These reasons may be derived from its reading of the role of courts in our constitutional order - such as the doctrine of justiciability of constitutional issues. Others may refer to judicial policies, such as the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies or the doctrine of primary jurisdiction. Other matters of justiciability refer to procedural devices to make the administration of justice more efficient. This includes the doctrine of respect for the hierarchy of courts when several courts have original but concurrent jurisdiction.
While jurisdiction is imperative, justiciability is not. In the same manner that judicial policy has been established, precedents which sketch the exceptions exist.
