high seas
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 274 U.S. 501 - Maul v. United States · 1927Most cited · 226 citing opinions
The high sea is common to all nations and foreign to none; and every nation having vessels there has power to regulate them and also to seize them for a violation of its laws.
How the Supreme Court has restated “high seas”
Each Supreme Court definition of “high seas,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “high seas”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “high seas” — 321 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1789–1927
- ORIGINAL
There has been great debate as to what is meant by high seas. A road, haven, or even river, not within the body of the county, is high sea, in the idea of Civilians. Therefore, if the river Delaware is out of the body of any county, we think it clear, that it is within the Admiralty jurisdiction.
The first instructions given by the president to the private armed vessels of the United States, define the high seas, referred to in the commission, to extend to low-water mark, with the exception of the space of one league, or three miles, from the shore of countries at peace with Great Britain or the United States.
for privateer commission
It is historically known, that in prosecuting trade with many places, vessels lie at anchor in open situations, (and especially where the trade winds blow) under the lee of the land. Such vessels are neither in a river, haven, basin or bay, and are no where, unless it be on the seas. Being at anchor is immaterial, for this might happen in a thousand places in the open ocean, as on the Banks of Newfoundland. Nor can it be objected that it was within the jurisdictional limits of a foreign State; for, those limits, though neutral to war, are not neutral to crimes.
vessel at anchor in open roadstead