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Abstention Doctrine

Civil Procedure and Judicial Process Doctrine

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Origin Developed through a series of twentieth-century US Supreme Court decisions, each naming its own abstention doctrine.

The abstention doctrine, more precisely a family of related abstention doctrines, refers to several judicially created principles under which a United States federal court may, or in some circumstances must, decline to hear a case that would otherwise fall within its jurisdiction, because deciding it would intrude on the authority of another court, most often a state court. The various doctrines, including Younger, Pullman and Colorado River abstention, are each named for the Supreme Court decision that established them and are typically invoked when parallel state and federal proceedings raise the same issues, to avoid friction between the state and federal court systems.

Facts
Origin Period
Developed through a series of twentieth-century US Supreme Court decisions, each naming its own abstention doctrine. 1
Core Principle
A federal court that otherwise has jurisdiction may decline to hear a case if doing so would intrude upon the powers of another court, most often to avoid duplicating or interfering with a pending state proceeding on the same matter. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

In Legal System

Sources
1. Abstention Doctrine (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
Quote, Lead section
An abstention doctrine is any of several doctrines that a United States court may (or in some cases must) apply to refuse to hear a case if hearing the case would potentially intrude upon the powers of another court.
View the Source
1. Abstention Doctrine (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIn Legal System: Law of the United StatesView the Source
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