What is the nature of jurisdiction when a court first entertains a case before the Bench?

Answer 1

The first time a case goes before the Bench, in Anglo-American law, that is, when the case goes before the court for consideration, as a general rule, the court takes jurisdiction to decide if it has jurisdiction. Jurisdiction, the power of the court to act concerning the matters before it is the more or less basis for any court's power to act in Anglo-American law.* Basically, there are two major types of jurisdiction: AT THE TRIAL LEVEL subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction. As a general rule, a person can submit to the authority of the court and effectively agree that the court's decision binds the person; however, the subject matter jurisdiction of the court is established by statutes that is laws made by legislaturs or constitutions. Subject matter jurisdiction is not something which parties can agree to for a court to act on. Courts have limitations on what they can decide about. Another way to say it is that if a court does not have subject matter jurisdiction, the parties cant agree for the court to make decisions in that area. Example, a probate court, or a small claims court cant grant a divorce no matter how much the parties involved want the probate or small claims court to grant the divorce or how much the parties agree for the probate court or small claims court to grant a divorce or how willing the parties are for the court's ruling to be binding on them personally with the court's decision about the divorce. Courts cant take subject matter jurisdiction where they dont have it in the first place;they can always take jurisdiction of the case to decide if they have subject matter jurisdiction to act. They are taking jurisdiction to decide if they have jurisdiction. *Anglo-American law is the results of legal systems and ways of jurisprudential thinking which has developed as a results of an long cultural and legal association between the United Kingdom and the United States of America.