Opinion ID: 1965862
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Historical Background to the Right of Fishery in Rhode Island

Text: The second issue to be determined by this Court is whether a fundamental constitutional right of fishery is involved. The right of fishery in Rhode Island has deep historical roots and can be traced back to approximately 1639, when a scarcity of provisions threatened our small population with imminent famine. Samuel Greene Arnold, 1 History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 142-43 (1859). After all the existing food stuffs were divided among the hundred or so inhabitants, `a general assembly of the freemen' at Newport voted that `all the sea banks were declared free for fishing.' 2 State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century: A History, The Sea Trade and its Development 389, 393 (Edward Field ed.1902) (quoting Arnold's History of Rhode Island, at 143). Open fishery has been credited by many scholars as the means that avoided impending disaster at that time. Equal freedom was thus granted to all inhabitants of the colony to fish in the waters of the bay, and this right was perpetuated, and extended to include the shores likewise, by the King Charles II charter of 1663. Id. at 393. Indeed, the Royal Charter is noteworthy for its establishment of a variety of freedoms, and it included the following specification critical to our present analysis: Provided also, and our express will and pleasure is, and we do, by those presents, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and appoint that these presents, shall not, in any manner, hinder any of our loving subjects, whatsoever, from using and exercising the trade of fishing upon the coast of New England, in America; but that they, and every or any of them, shall have full and free power and liberty to continue and use the trade of fishing upon the said coast, in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any arms of the seas, or salt water, rivers and creeks, where they have been accustomed to fish   . The Royal Charter (granted by King Charles II, July 8, 1663, and in force until the Constitution, adopted in November, 1842, became operative on the first Tuesday of May, 1843). In 1842, the Rhode Island Constitution was ratified, and significantly, it incorporated the rights of fishery from the Royal Charter. However, it is noteworthy that this right was augmented in 1970, with an amendment entitled Conservation, in which the previous provisions with respect to the right of fishery were annulled and replaced. See R.I. Const. amend. 37, secs. 1, 2. The complexity and precarious balance of the values sought to be preserved by article 1, section 17 of the Rhode Island Constitution is demonstrated by the following 175 word sentence. It provides, in relevant part: The people shall continue to enjoy and freely exercise all the rights of fishery, and the privileges of the shore, to which they have been heretofore entitled under the charter and usages of this state,    and they shall be secure in their rights to the use and enjoyment of the natural resources of the state with due regard for the preservation of their values; and it shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide for the conservation of the air, land, water, plant, animal, mineral and other natural resources of the state, and to adopt all means necessary and proper by law to protect the natural environment of the people of the state by providing adequate resource planning for the control and regulation for the use of the natural resources of the state and for the preservation, regeneration and restoration of the natural environment of the state. R.I. Const. art. 1, sec. 17. Our canons of constitutional interpretation require that we look at the plain language of section 17, and it is clear to us that the right of fishery is qualified by the concomitant language of the 1970 amendment, which imposes a duty on the General Assembly to preserve, regenerate, and conserve through resource planning. This is consistent with this Court's longstanding view that the right of fishery in Rhode Island belongs to the general public, and to no particular individual. See, e.g., Cherenzia, 847 A.2d at 823-24; Opinion to the Senate, 87 R.I. at 38, 137 A.2d at 525-26 (the constitutional guarantee of free fishery is for the benefit of all people and gives no peculiar rights to those resorting to it for commercial purposes); State v. Kofines, 33 R.I. 211, 224, 80 A. 432, 437 (1911); In re Incurring of State Debts, 19 R.I. 610, 613, 37 A. 14, 15 (1896) (defining the term people, as used in article 1, section 17 of the Rhode Island Constitution as broad and comprehensive, comprising all the inhabitants of the state); State v. Cozzens, 2 R.I. 561, 563 (1850).