The Action Bias in American Law: Internet Jurisdiction and the Triumph of Zippo Dot Com

29 Pages Posted: 22 Oct 2006

See all articles by Richard Greenstein

Richard Greenstein

Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law

Abstract

American law reflects the stories we tell ourselves about who we are as a nation. To illustrate the effect of America's stories on the law, I identify and describe in this essay a particular characteristic of American law: an actionbias - a propensity to bestow disproportionately greater legal significance upon affirmative acts than on failures to act - and I argue that this bias reflects, in turn, a powerful myth at the core of the self-image of the United States, a myth I call the Immigrant's Tale.

To illustrate this thesis, I give a number of instances of the action bias, but focus primarily on the career of an important federal district court decision: Zippo Manufacturing Company v. Zippo Dot Com, the case that formulated the framework now used almost universally in the determination of personal jurisdiction in Internet cases.

Keywords: story, narrative, internet, personal jurisdiction, myth, Zippo Dot Com

JEL Classification: K41

Suggested Citation

Greenstein, Richard, The Action Bias in American Law: Internet Jurisdiction and the Triumph of Zippo Dot Com. Temple Law Review, Vol. 80, p. 21, 2007, Temple University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 30, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=939075

Richard Greenstein (Contact Author)

Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law ( email )

1719 N. Broad Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122
United States

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