Trans-Personal Procedures
This Article introduces and develops the concept of trans-personality. Trans-personality is the principle that procedural rules should not vary based on the personhood of the litigating parties. The Article then employs the concept of trans-personality to upend conventional wisdom in key procedural areas. I argue that personal jurisdiction doctrine must abandon the trans-personal norm and bifurcate into two branches, personal jurisdiction and entity jurisdiction, to account for fundamental differences between natural and artificial persons. A lack of personhood-specific flexibility imposes unnecessary costs. The existing literature attempts to deal with this rigidity problem but often identifies the wrong culprit (types of lawsuits, rather than types of entities). Trans-personality provides a better diagnosis and a better solution.
Preferred citation: Roger Michalski, Trans-Personal Procedures, 47
Conn. L. Rev.
321 (2014).
