MARITIME LAW. That system of law which particularly relates to the affairs and business of the sea, to ships, their crews and navigation, and to the marine conveyance of persons and property.
Whilst the general maritime law is the basis of the maritime law of the United States, as well as of other countries, it is only so far operative in this, or any country, as it is adopted by the laws and usages thereof. It has no inherent force of its own ; The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. (U. S.) 558, 22 L. Ed. 654.
In particular matters, especially such as approach a merely municipal character, the received maritime law may differ in different countries without affecting the integrity Of the system as a harmonious whole.
The general system of maritime law which was familiar to the lawyers and statesmen of this country when the constitution was adopted, was intended, and referred to, when it was declared in that instrument that the judicial power of the United States shall ex tend "to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction." Thus adopted, it became the maritime law of the United States, operating uniformly in the whole country.
The question as to the true limits of mari time law and admiralty jurisdiction is ex clusively a judicial question, and no state law or act of congress can make it broader or narrower than the judicial power may determine those limits to be. But what the law is within those limits, assuming the general maritime law to be the basis of the system, depends on what has been received as law in the maritime usages of this coun try, and on such legislation as may have been competent to effect it.
The decisions of this court illustrative of these sources, and giving construction to the laws and constitution, are especially to be considered ; and when these fail us, we must resort to the principles by which they have been governed.
The maritime law is a law common to all nations which are engaged in maritime com merce; it consists of certain principles of equity and usages of trade which general convenience and a common sense of justice have established in all the commercial coun tries of the world, to regulate the dealing and intercourse of merchants and mariners, in matters relating to the sea. Bened. Adm.
§ 214 a.
"This maritime law does not in the least depend upon the court in which it is to be administered, but furnishes the proper rule of decision in cases to which it applies, no matter in what court they may be brought ; and it has, in fact, been administered in different countries, in different courts, each constituted in its own manner. In Eng land, the court of admiralty and the court of chancery especially enforced it, while truth was required in pleading ; but when, by the use of a fictitious venue, the facts might be laid as occurring in London, the king's bench took jurisdiction and prohib ited the admiralty ; and thus, in the king's bench more than in the court of admiralty, and especially under Lord Mansfield, the maritime law was built up and extended." Bened. Adm. § 42.
"The jurisdiction of the admiral, and the administration of the admiralty law proper—the local maritime law,—as it be came a judicial function, has thus passed into the hands of the' courts, and they now administer the admiralty law and the mari time law, both of which are sometimes called the admiralty law, sometimes the maritime law, and sometimes the admiralty and mari time law; and cases arising under them are eases of admiralty and maritime jurisdic tion." Bened. Adm. § 43. See De Lovio v. Boit, 2 Gall. 398, Fed. Cas. No. 3,776.
The law of limited liability was enacted by congress as a part of the maritime law of the United States, and, in its operation, extends wherever public navigation extends ; Butler v. Steamship Co., 130 U. S. 527, 9 Sup.
Ct. 612, 32 L. Ed. 1017 ; the act of congress of 1886, § 4, extending the limited liability act to vessels used on a river in inland navi gation, is a constitutional and valid law ; In re Garnett, 141 U. S. 1, 11 Sup. Ct. 840, 35 L. Ed. 631. See ABANDONMENT ; SHIP AD MIRALTY; MARITIME CAUSE, and the various titles in regard to which information is sought ; VESSEL.