Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/289/137/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 19:56:27+00:00

Document:
1. The clause of the Constitution, Art. I, § 8, specifically granting to Congress the power "to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations," and the general provision of Art. III, § 2, extending the judicial power "to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction," are the results of separate steps, independently taken in the Convention, by which the jurisdiction in admiralty, previously divided between the Confederation and the States, was transferred to the National Government. P. 289 U. S. 146.
2. In view of the history of the two clauses and the manner of their adoption, the grant of power to define and punish piracies and felonies on the high seas cannot be deemed to be a limitation on the powers, either legislative or judicial, conferred on the National Government by Art. III, § 2. P. 289 U. S. 149.
3. To construe the one clause as limiting, rather than supplementing, the other would be to ignore their history, and, without effecting any discernible purpose of their enactment, to deny to both the states and the national government powers which were common attributes of sovereignty before the adoption of the Constitution, including the power to define and punish crimes, of less gravity than felonies, committed on vessels of the United States while on the high seas, and crimes of every grade committed on them while in foreign territorial waters. P. 289 U. S. 149.
4. The jurisdiction over admiralty and maritime cases extends to crimes committed on vessels of the United States while in navigable waters within the territorial jurisdiction of foreign sovereigns. P. 289 U. S. 150.
5. The jurisdiction is not affected by the fact that the vessel is on a river at a place remote from the sea where the water is not salt or tidal. P. 289 U. S. 153.
"when committed within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, on board any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United States"
or any of its citizens, etc., is broad enough to include crimes in the territorial waters of foreign sovereignties. Pp. 289 U. S. 145, 289 U. S. 155.
7. Congress, by incorporating in the statute the very language of the constitutional grant of power, has made its exercise of the power coextensive with the grant. P. 289 U. S. 155.
8. The general rule that criminal statutes of the United States are not to be given extraterritorial effect is inapplicable to our merchant vessels. P. 289 U. S. 155.
9. A merchant ship, for purposes of the jurisdiction of the courts of the sovereignty whose flag it flies to punish crimes committed upon it, is deemed to be a part of the territory of that sovereignty, and not to lose that character when in navigable waters within the territorial limits of another sovereignty. P. 289 U. S. 155.
10. For some purposes, the jurisdiction to punish crimes committed on a foreign vessel in territorial waters is concurrent in the territorial sovereign and the sovereign of the vessel's flag. P. 289 U. S. 157.
11. In the absence of any controlling treaty provision, and of any assertion of jurisdiction by the territorial sovereign, it is the duty of the courts of the United States to apply to offenses committed by its citizens on vessels flying its flag, its own statutes, interpreted in the light of recognized principles of international law. P. 289 U. S. 159.
Appeal from a judgment sustaining a demurrer to an indictment, which charged the appellee, an American citizen, with having murdered another American citizen aboard an American ship in foreign territorial waters.
while at anchor in the Port of Matadi, in the Belgian Congo, a place subject to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Belgium, and that appellee, after the commission of the crime, was first brought into the Port of Philadelphia, a place within the territorial jurisdiction of the District Court. By stipulation, it was conceded, as though stated in a bill of particulars, that the Padnsay, at the time of the offense charged, was unloading, being attached to the shore by cables at a point 250 miles inland from the mouth of the Congo river.
The District Court, following its earlier decision in United States ex rel. Maro v. Mathues, 21 F.2d 533, aff'd, 27 F.2d 518, sustained a demurrer to the indictment and discharged the prisoner on the ground that the court was without jurisdiction to try the offense charged. 3 F.Supp. 134. The case comes here by direct appeal under the Act of March 2, 1907, c. 2564, 34 Stat. 1264, 18 U.S.C. § 682, and § 238 of the Judicial Code, as amended by Act of February 13, 1925, 28 U.S.C. § 345, the court below certifying that its decision was founded upon its construction of § 272 of the Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C. § 451.
"when committed within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state on board any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United States"
or any of its nationals. And, by § 41 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 102, venue to try offenses "committed upon the high seas, or elsewhere out of the jurisdiction of any particular state or district" is "in the district where the offender is found, or into which he is first brought." As the offense charged here was committed on board a vessel lying outside the territorial jurisdiction of a state, see Wynne v. United States, 217 U. S. 234; United States v. Rodgers, 150 U. S. 249, 150 U. S. 265, and within that of a foreign sovereignty, the court below was without jurisdiction to try and punish the offense unless it was within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States.
Two questions are presented on this appeal: first, whether the extension of the judicial power of the federal government "to all cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction," by Art. III, § 2, of the Constitution confers on Congress power to define and punish offenses perpetrated by a citizen of the United States on board one of its merchant vessels lying in navigable waters within the territorial limits of another sovereignty; and, second, whether Congress has exercised that power by the enactment of § 272 of the Criminal Code, under which the indictment was found.
grant of power to punish offenses outside the territorial limits of the United States was thus restricted to offenses occurring on the high seas, the more general grant could not be resorted to as extending either the legislative or judicial power over offenses committed on vessels outside the territorial limits of the United States and not on the high seas.
"the United States in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power . . . of establishing rules for deciding in all cases, what captures on land or water shall be legal, . . . appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures. . . ."
supplement it as experience or changing conditions may require. Panama R. Co. v. Johnson, 264 U. S. 375, 264 U. S. 386-388; Crowell v. Benson, 285 U. S. 22, 285 U. S. 39; see The Oconee, 280 F. 927; United States v. Bevans, 3 Wheat. 336, 16 U. S. 389.
high seas and crimes of every grade committed on them while in foreign territorial waters.
consistently held that jurisdiction is not restricted to vessels within the navigable waters of the realm, but follows its ships upon the high seas and into ports and rivers within the territorial jurisdiction of foreign sovereigns. Queen v. Carr & Wilson, 10 Q.B.D. 76; Queen v. Anderson, L.R., 1 Crown cases Reserved 161; Rex v. Allen, 1 Moody C.C. 494; see Rex v. Jemot, 1 Russell on Crimes, 4th ed. 153.
"upon the high seas, or in any arm of the sea, or in any river, haven, creek, basin or bay, within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state,"
weapon committed under similar circumstances. [Footnote 7] The provisions of the latter section, carried into § 5346 of the Revised Statutes, were upheld in United States v. Rodgers, supra, as a constitutional exercise of the power of Congress to define and punish offenses occurring in American vessels while within territorial waters of another sovereignty. Rodgers had been convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon, committed on a vessel of the United States lying in the Detroit River within the territorial jurisdiction of Canada, and his conviction was sustained by this Court. It was assumed that the statute was applicable only with respect to offenses committed on the high seas and waters tributary to them, and the decision turned on whether the Great Lakes were to be deemed "high seas" within the meaning of the statute. It was held that they were, and the power of Congress to punish offenses committed on an American vessel within the territorial waters of Canada, tributary to the Lakes, was expressly affirmed.
The appellee insists that, even though Congress has power to define and punish crimes on American vessels in foreign waters, it has not done so by the present statute, since the criminal jurisdiction of the United States is based upon the territorial principle, and the statute cannot rightly be interpreted to be a departure from that principle. But the language of the statute making it applicable to offenses committed on an American vessel outside the jurisdiction of a state "within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States" is broad enough to include crimes in the territorial waters of a foreign sovereignty. For Congress, by incorporating in the statute the very language of the constitutional grant of power, has made its exercise of the power coextensive with the grant. Compare 71 U. S. Trevor, 4 Wall. 555.
waters within the territorial limits of another sovereignty. United States v. Rodgers, supra; compare Thomas v. Lane, 2 Sumn. 1; Queen v. Anderson, supra; Queen v. Carr & Wilson, supra; Rex v. Allen, supra; Rex v. Jemot, supra. This qualification of the territorial principle in the case of vessels of the flag was urged by Mr. Webster while Secretary of state, in his letter to Lord Ashburton [Footnote 9] of August 1, 1842, quoted with approval in United States v.
Rodgers, supra, 150 U. S. 264-265. Subject to the right of the territorial sovereignty to assert jurisdiction over offenses disturbing the peace of the port, it has been supported by writers on international law, and has been recognized by France, Belgium, and other continental countries, as well as by England and the United States. See Moore, International Law Digest, vol. 2, 287, 297; Fiore, International Law Codified, translated by E. M. Borchard, 192, 193; Wheaton, International Law, vol. I, 245; Hall, International Law (8th Ed.) 253-258; Jessup, The Law of Territorial Waters, 144-193.
"all cases arising on board such vessels while on any such waters, are clearly cases within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States."
A related but different question, not presented here, may arise when jurisdiction over an offense committed on a foreign vessel is asserted by the sovereignty in whose waters it was lying at the time of its commission, since, for some purposes, the jurisdiction may be regarded as concurrent, in that the courts of either sovereignty may try the offense.
"And so, by comity, it came to be generally understood among civilized nations that all matters of discipline and all things done on board which affected only the vessel or those belonging to her, and did not involve the peace or dignity of the country or the tranquility of the port, should be left by the local government to be dealt with by the authorities of the nation to which the vessel belonged as the laws of that nation or the interests of its commerce should require. But, if crimes are committed on board of a character to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the country to which the vessel has been brought, the offenders have never, by comity or usage, been entitled to any exemption from the operation of the local laws for their punishment if the local tribunals see fit to assert their authority. "
"§ 272. The crimes and offenses defined in this chapter shall be punished as herein prescribed:"
"First: When committed upon the high seas, or on any other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United states and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, or when committed within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United states and out of the jurisdiction of any particular state on board any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United states or any citizen thereof, or to any corporation created by or under the laws of the United states, or of any state, Territory, or District thereof. . . ."
On July 16, 1787, the Convention agreed nem. con. "that the national legislature ought to possess the legislative rights vested in Congress by the Confederation." This proposal was committed to the Committee of Detail in resolution VI, of July 26th. The Committee, on August 6th, in Article VII of their draft, recommended a provision, based on the Articles of Confederation, which, as formulated by the Convention on August 17th, and amended in matters not now material by the Committee on Style, was included in Article I, § 8, of the Constitution. See Madison's Diary, International Edition, pp. 260, 333, 340, 341, 415, 416.
On June 5, 1787, Wilson stated to the Convention that he thought the admiralty jurisdiction should be given wholly to the national government. Resolution XVI, which was referred to the Committee on Detail on July 26th, provided that the jurisdiction of the national judiciary "shall extend to cases arising under laws passed by the general legislature and to such other questions as involve the natural peace and harmony." Wilson was one of the five members of the Committee on Detail, chosen on July 24th, which reported, August 6th, Article XI, dealing with the jurisdiction of federal courts, and containing in § 3 a provision extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court "to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction" which was ultimately incorporated in § 2 of Article III of the Constitution as finally adopted. Madison's Diary, International Edition, pp. 61, 336, 317, 318, 344.
"when all is considered, therefore, there is no room to doubt that the power of Congress extends to the entire subject, and permits of the exercise of a wide discretion. But there are limitations which have come to be well recognized. One is that there are boundaries to the maritime law and admiralty jurisdiction which inhere in those subjects, and cannot be altered by legislation, as by excluding a thing falling clearly within them or including a thing falling clearly without. Another is that the spirit and purpose of the constitutional provision require that the enactments -- when not relating to matters whose existence or influence is confined to a more restricted field, as in Cooley v. Board of Wardens, 12 How. 299, 53 U. S. 319 -- shall be coextensive with and operate uniformly in the whole of the United states. Waring v. Clarke, 5 How. 441, 46 U. S. 457; The Lottawanna, 21 Wall. 558, 88 U. S. 574, 88 U. S. 577; Butler v. Boston & Savannah S.S. Co., 130 U. S. 527, 130 U. S. 556-557; In re Garnett, 141 U. S. 1, 141 U. S. 12; Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U. S. 205, 244 U. S. 215; Knickerbocker Ice Co. v. Stewart, 253 U. S. 149, 253 U. S. 164; Washington v. Dawson & Co., 264 U. S. 219; 2 Story, Const., 5th ed., §§ 1663, 1664, 1672."
In England, serious offenses committed "upon the sea, or in any other haven, river, creek or place where the admiral or admirals have or pretend to have power, authority or jurisdiction" were, after the statute 27 Henry VIII, c. 4, and 28 Henry VIII, c. 15, tried according to the course of the common law before specially constituted admiralty courts, the judges of which were designated to sit by the Lord Chancellor. They were often common law judges who sat as commissioners for the trial of crimes within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. Holdsworth, History of English Law (3d Ed.) vol. I, 550-552; Hale, Pleas of the Crown, vol. II, 17; Stephen, History of Criminal Law of England, vol. II, 16-23; cf. Brooks, Trial of Captain Kidd, 40, 57. There is evidence that, during the seventeenth century, the courts of Virginia and Maryland tried felonies and piracies which, in England, would have been within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Commissioners. See Crump, Colonial Admiralty Jurisdiction in the Seventeenth Century, 68. The practice under the statute, 28 Henry VIII, c. 15, was extended to the Colonies in cases of "piracy, felonies and robberies," by statute 11 and 12 William III, c. 7. See 2 Stephen, supra, 20. In Virginia, very shortly before the enactment of this statute, an act was passed adopting the provisions of the statute of Henry VIII. 3 Hening, Statutes at Large of Virginia, 176. For instances of minor offenses prosecuted in the Colonial Courts of Vice-Admiralty in the eighteenth century, see Hough's Cases in Vice-Admiralty and Admiralty: King v. Booth (1730), p. 12; King v. Burgess (1748), p. 56; King v. White (1954), p. 81. Eighteenth century Vice-Admiralty commissions in the Colonies contain verbal grants of jurisdiction over crimes within the admiralty jurisdiction. Publications of Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. II, 237, 238; Benedict on Admiralty (5th Ed.) 787-811; Record Book of Maryland Court of Vice-Admiralty in Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress, fols. 74, 82. And there is evidence of the trial of piracies in the Colonies, see Jameson, Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period, pp. 143, 278, note 1, 286, note 1, and see 577 to 580. Compare Rhode Island: Letters from Governors in America, 1756, P.R.O.: CO.5.:17, p. 639 (Ms. copy in Library of Congress), which indicates a trial at Providence for murder on the high seas in a special admiralty court constituted under the statute 11 and 12 William III. Captain Kidd, who was arrested in Boston prior to 1700 for murder and piracy on the high seas, was transported to England for trial before an admiralty court organized pursuant to royal commission (see 14 Howell's state Trials, 123, 147, 191), and this practice may well have continued after the statute of William III.
In United States v. M'Gill, 4 Dall. 426 [omitted], Mr. Justice Washington, sitting in the Circuit Court in a case where the offense charged was murder committed on a vessel lying in the haven of Cape Francois, held that the statute did not apply where the mortal stroke was given on the vessel but the death occurred on shore, since the murder was not committed on the high seas or any river, basin, or bay. He doubted whether the offense thus committed was cognizable in admiralty in the absence of statute, but stated he had no doubt of the power of Congress to provide for it.
"committed on board of any ship or vessel, belonging to any citizen or citizens of the United States, while lying in a port or place within the jurisdiction of any foreign state or sovereign, by any person belonging to the company of said ship, or any passenger, or any other person belonging to the company of said ship, or any other passenger. . . ."
This language was not, in terms, incorporated in the Revised Statutes.
Daniel Webster, Chairman of the House Committee having in charge the bill which became the Act of 1825, pointed out in introducing it that the offenses for which it provided punishment had actually occurred upon our ships while lying in the harbors of foreign nations, and had gone unpunished for want of such legislation. Gall & Seaton's Register of Debates in Congress, Vol. 1, cols, 154, 158.
"the jurisdiction of the Admiralty extends over vessels not only when they are on the open sea, but also when in places where great ships do generally go."
"we have no hesitation in saying that the Savannah River, from its mouth to the highest point to which it is navigable, is subject to the maritime law and the admiralty jurisdiction of the United States."
"It is natural to consider the vessels of a nation as parts of its territory, though at sea, as the state retains its jurisdiction over them, and, according to the commonly received custom, this jurisdiction is preserved over the vessels even in parts of the sea subject to a foreign dominion. This is the doctrine of the law of nations, clearly laid down by writers of received authority, and entirely conformable, as it is supported, with the practice of modern nations. If a murder be committed on board of an American vessel by one of the crew upon another or upon a passenger, or by a passenger on one of the crew or another passenger, while such vessel is lying in a port within the jurisdiction of a foreign sovereignty, the offense is cognizable and punishable by the proper court of the United States in the same manner as if such offense had been committed on board the vessel on the high seas. The law of England is supposed to be the same. It is true that the jurisdiction of a nation over a vessel belonging to it, while lying in the port of another, is not necessarily wholly exclusive. We do not so consider or so assert it. For any unlawful acts done by her while thus lying in port, and for all contracts entered into while there, by her master or owners, she and they must, doubtless, be answerable to the laws of the place. Nor, if her master or crew, while on board in such port, break the peace of the community by the commission of crimes, can exemption be claimed for them. But, nevertheless, the law of nations, as I have stated it, and the statutes of governments founded on that law, as I have referred to them, show that enlightened nations, in modern times, do clearly hold that the jurisdiction and laws of a nation accompany her ships not only over the high seas, but into ports and harbors, or wheresoever else they may be water-borne, for the general purpose of governing and regulating the rights, duties, and obligations of those on board thereof, and that, to the extent of the exercise of this jurisdiction, they are considered as parts of the territory of the nation herself."
6 Webster's Works, 306, 307.
That the doctrines are not in conflict was pointed out by Webster in his letter to Lord Ashburton, quoted supra, note 9 See also Hall, International Law, 8th ed., 255, 256.

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 § 5346
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