Also known as: comity · doctrine of comity · international comity
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A discretionary principle permitting a court to recognize a foreign judgment rendered after a fair hearing by a court with jurisdiction over one or both parties.
A principle authorizing federal courts to abstain from enjoining ongoing state proceedings or to decline supplemental jurisdiction over state claims when federalism and respect for another sovereign's authority counsel restraint.
A discretionary principle permitting a court to recognize a foreign judgment rendered after a fair hearing by a court with jurisdiction over one or both parties.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A principle authorizing federal courts to abstain from enjoining ongoing state proceedings or to decline supplemental jurisdiction over state claims when federalism and respect for another sovereign's authority counsel restraint.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Compass Logistics sues foreign insurers in federal court over alleged price-fixing abroad. The court weighs whether to proceed given parallel foreign regulatory proceedings and elects to stay the action to avoid conflicting obligations.
Cedar Creek Farms asserts a patent claim previously litigated against it by a university foundation. The court gives preclusive effect to the earlier judgment, recognizing the finality interests served by respecting the prior adjudication.
Comity governs recognition of foreign-country divorce decrees after a fair hearing by a court with jurisdiction over the parties. Full faith and credit applies only to sister-state judgments under the Constitution.
Supporting sources
Recognition under comity requires only that the foreign court had jurisdiction over one or both parties and that the hearing was fair.
Supporting sources
Carmen Choi faces state criminal charges in state court. She files a federal suit seeking to enjoin the prosecution on constitutional grounds. The federal court refuses the injunction because the state proceeding remains ongoing and no showing of bad-faith harassment appears in the record.
Canyon Construction sues a supplier in federal court on a federal antitrust claim and adds related state contract counts. After the federal claim is dismissed on summary judgment, the court declines to keep the state claims so that a state tribunal may resolve them.
Cynthia Cortez sues her former spouse in federal court for tort damages arising from alleged child abuse. The court dismisses the action because the suit would require adjudication of custody and support issues that belong in state family court.
Cardinal Insurance, a foreign corporation, faces product-liability suits in a state where it sells few policies. The court refuses to assert general jurisdiction over claims arising abroad, citing the need to respect limits on adjudicating foreign conduct.
A federal court may decline supplemental jurisdiction after dismissing all claims within its original jurisdiction. The statute authorizes this step when state claims predominate or raise novel issues better resolved by state courts.
Supporting sources
Federal courts abstain absent extraordinary circumstances such as bad-faith prosecution or a flagrantly unconstitutional statute that cannot be validly applied.
Supporting sources
…an elementary principle, that the laws of one State have no operation outside of its territory, except so far as is allowed by comity; and that no tribunal established by it can extend its process beyond that territory so as to subject either persons or property to its decisions. "Any exertion of authority of this sort…