Plenary jurisdiction

Plenary jurisdiction: A court’s full and absolute power over the subject matter and the parties in a case.” Black’s Law Dictionary 8^th edition, page 2455.

“Plenary. Full; complete, in the courts of admiralty and in the English ecclesiastical courts, causes or suits in respect of the different course of proceedings in each are termed plenary or summary. Plenary, or full and formal, suits are those in which the proceedings must be full and formal, the term summary is applied to those causes where the proceedings are more succinct and less formal. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, Third Revision, 8^th Edition, Volume 2, page 2612.