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1 1 (September 20, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/goveiwg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SCon gressionaI R.fesearch Service Federal Admiralty and Maritime Jurisdiction Part 2: Historical Background September 20, 2022 This Legal Sidebar post is the second in a five-part series that discusses the bases and scope of U.S. admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Last year, a supply-chain bottleneck arose at the nation's ports with as many as 101 container ships waiting for berths at the nation's Los Angeles and Long Beach ports in the weeks before Christmas. These delays added to the time it took to deliver the goods to market and increased the costs of transporting them. Claims for breaches of maritime contracts related to shipping delays may fall within U.S. admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. As a result, Congress may be interested in how this area of law operates. Additional information on this topic can be found at the Constitution Annotated: Analysis and Interpretation of the US Constitution. The Constitution's Framers were familiar with the concept of a separate and specialized admiralty jurisdiction. Prior to the Founding, the British Crown commissioned vice-admiralty courts in the American colonies. These courts, which were subordinate to the English admiralty courts, exercised jurisdiction independent from the colonial courts of common law and equity over maritime cases arising in the colonies. In the years leading up to the American Revolution, the jurisdiction of the independent vice-admiralty courts led to disputes between the colonists and the British Crown. For example, the colonists objected to the Crown's prosecution of colonists in the vice-admiralty courts, without trial by jury, for allegedly violating a British tax law, the 1765 Stamp Act. In 1774, the First Continental Congress's delegates cited this extension of British admiralty courts' jurisdiction beyond their ancient limits as one of the major grievances against Great Britain. Denial to the colonists of trial by jury in the vice-admiralty courts helped to motivate the colonists' 1776 Declaration of Independence, which cited the British King depriving the colonists in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury as a justification for separating from Great Britain. After declaring independence, each state established its own admiralty courts. State admiralty courts adopted a wide variety of procedural practices, particularly with respect to the availability of jury trials. Although the Articles of Confederation authorized Congress to establish a tribunal to hear appeals from state admiralty courts in prize cases, which historically involved vessels captured during wartime and brought into the United States, this appeal mechanism failed to resolve many conflicts among state admiralty court decisions. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10825 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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