Criminal jurisdiction

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Criminal jurisdiction is a term used in constitutional law and public law to describe the power of courts to hear a case brought by a state accusing a defendant of the commission of a crime. It is relevant in three distinct situations:

1. to regulate the relationship between states, or between one state and another;
2. where the nation is a federation, to regulate the relationship between the federal courts and the domestic courts of those states comprising the federation; and
3. where a state only has, to a greater or lesser extent, a single and unified system of law, it is the law of criminal procedure to regulate what cases each classification of court within the judicial system shall adjudicate upon. People must be tried in the same state the crime is committed.