High Seas
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States · John Bouvier · 1839
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States
This term, which is frequently used in the laws of the United States, signifies the unenclosed waters of the ocean on the sea coast which are without the boundaries of low water mark.
1 Gall. R. 624; 5 Mason’s R. 290. The act of congress of 30th of April, 1790, s.
8, 1 Story’s L. U. S. 84, enacts that if any person shall commit upon the high seas, or in any river, haven, basin, or bay, out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, murder, &c. which, if committed within the body of a county would, by the laws of the United States be punishable with death, every such offender, being thereof convicted, shall suffer death; and the trial of crimes committed on the high seas, or in any place out of the jurisdiction of any particular state, shall be in the district where the offender is apprehended, or into which he may first be brought.
See 4 Dall. R. 426; 3 Wheat. R. 336; 5 Wheat. R. 184, 412; 3W.C.C. R. 515; Serg. Const. Law, 334.