First Page
1246
Abstract
Equitable abstention refers to the deference a federal court will give a state tribunal to determine the rights of the litigants, even though technically, a federal court could entertain the action, whether by means of diversity of citizenship or because of a federal issue involved. Because of comity, or convenience, or a sense of balance in the federal system, or better handling of the problem, or some other reason of policy, federal courts at times have required a litigant to proceed in the state courts before invoking federal court jurisdiction. How this doctrine arose, its extensions and limitations form the subject of this note.
Recommended Citation
Joyce Britt,
The Abstention Doctrine: A Problem of Federalism,
17 Vanderbilt Law Review
1246
(1964)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol17/iss3/30