Offers practical guidance and comprehensive coverage on all aspects of federal court jurisdiction and litigation procedure, as well as the relationship between the state and federal courts. Text reviews the federal judicial system; judicial power of the United States; diversity of citizenship; venue; pleadings, trials, and judgments; and appellate court jurisdiction.

In offering a general account of the Court as department head, Pfander takes up such important debates in the federal courts' literature as Congress's power to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction to review state court decisions, its authority to assign decision-making authority to state courts, and much more.