7. Recall that many state venue rules incorporate a “local action” doctrine for lawsuits involving property. In LIVINGSTON v. JEFFERSON, 15 F. Cas. 660 (C.C.D. Va. 1811), Chief Justice Marshall, sitting as a Circuit Judge, recognized the local action doctrine in the federal courts. “[A]ctions are deemed transitory,” the court explained, “where transactions on which they are founded, might have taken place anywhere, but are local where their cause is in its nature necessarily local.” Id. at 664. See Degnan, Livingston v. Jefferson—A Freestanding Footnote, 75 Calif. L. Rev. 115 (1987). In 2001, the American Law Institute recommended eliminating the local action doctrine in the federal system. Does the federal venue statute continue to recognize a distinction between local and transitory actions? See 28 U.S.C. §

1391(a)(2). Does the statute’s current treatment of local actions suggest that the doctrine is a rule of venue and not that of subject-matter jurisdiction? To what extent does the location of property continue to affect the venue determination? See 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2).