ADDRESS OF CHARLES R. HICKOX (of the New York Bar) OUTLINES OF ADMIRALTY JURISDICTION GENTLEMEN: There is not time to give you a comprehensive outline on the subject of admiralty. Perhaps I can merely give you more or less elementary observations on what admiralty covers. It is a very ancient subject. Admiralty is one of the most venerable things we have. It is a subject which has been attacked throughout its entire existence, but it seems to grow stronger and perhaps more important as time goes on. The earliest records of anything in the nature of rules of admiralty indicating jurisdiction probably were the ancient laws which were in use in the Mediterranean about the eleventh century, I believe. They were followed in the twelfth century by the laws of Oléron, which was, as perhaps many of you know, a small island off the coast of France at the mouth of the Charente River, about opposite Rochefort. Those laws were drawn up under the direction of Eleanor, who was the mother of Richard the First of England, and they have very largely served as the model of the subsequent views on admiralty jurisdiction. In the thirteenth century there was drawn up a set of rules, the laws of Wisby, which was an island off Sweden. Later on, about 1597, there were similar laws of the Hanse Towns. It seems curious, perhaps, that the earlier rules and regulations are entirely free from anything in the way of influence on the part of England, which has had so large a part in the modelling of admiralty matters for the last six hundred years. Admiralty has practically expanded with the commerce of the world. Its jurisdiction has been increased to some extent by statute and very largely by judicial construction. Admiralty started out by being the laws which were enforced by the admirals in England. There were various admirals and they continued to exercise coordinate jurisdiction until about the fifteenth century, when they were combined into one Admiralty Court. The earliest English compilation of admiralty reports was the Venerable Black Book of the Admiralty, issued probably in the reign of Edward III. The book contains the laws of Oléron, a specification of crimes and offences cognizable in admiralty and also ordinances and commentaries on the subject of prize and maritime torts, injuries and contracts occurring or made within the ebb and flow of the tide and on the high seas. This book has always been regarded as of the highest authority as describing but not limiting admiralty jurisdiction, and was reprinted by the British Government in 1871. There was from the outset in England a considerable conflict between admiralty and the common law. Lord Coke and other judges were apparently very jealous of the exercise of jurisdiction in legal matters by the admirals or the admiralty courts, and, in the fourteenth century, about 1389, in the reign of Richard II, there were restraining acts passed prohibiting the admirals and their courts. from dealing with matters that had to do in any way with the land. In 1400, time of Henry IV, there were further laws restraining, or attempting to restrain, the Admiralty Courts from dealing with contracts that did not arise on the high seas. The grant of power to the admirals and subsequently |