310
Opinion of the Court
burdens entirely. Congress consequently has authorized, through other statutory provisions, immediate appeals (or has empowered courts to authorize immediate appeals) in certain classes of cases—classes in which these countervailing benefits may well predominate. None of these special "immediate appeal" statutes, however, is applicable here. See 28 U. S. C. § 1292 (immediate appeal of, e. g., orders granting or denying injunctions; authority to "certify" certain important legal questions); Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 54(b) (authorizing district courts to "direct the entry of a final judgment as to one or more but fewer than all of the claims or parties"); 28 U. S. C. §§ 1292(e), 2072(c) (1988 ed., Supp. V) (authorizing this Court to promulgate rules designating certain kinds of orders as immediately appealable); cf. 28 U. S. C. § 1651 (authorizing federal courts to "issue all writs necessary or appropriate," including writs of mandamus).
Second, in Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U. S. 541 (1949), this Court held that certain so-called collateral orders amount to "final decisions," immediately appealable under the here-relevant statute, 28 U. S. C. § 1291, even though the district court may have entered those orders before (perhaps long before) the case has ended. These special "collateral orders" were those that fell within
"that small class which finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated." Cohen, supra, at 546.
More recently, this Court has restated Cohen as requiring that the order " '[1] conclusively determine the disputed question, [2] resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action, and [3] be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment.' " Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority v. Metcalf & Eddy, Inc., 506 U. S.
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