Courts spend a lot of time and energy figuring out whether a litigant or case is properly before it, and, for this reason, an understanding of threshold issues - matters that a court must determine before it will consider a case on its merits - is crucial for any litigator. These issues include whether a litigant, and the litigant's suit, is properly before the court; whether the issues are correctly framed; whether the court before which the suit is brought is the appropriate forum; and whether the issue or claim has been heard before. The determination of these issues is often complex, and despite the ostensibly preliminary nature of the inquiry, is frequently intertwined with a consideration of the merits. In this course, we will cover both basic and advanced aspects of these threshold matters, and discuss their change over time.

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