46 U.S.C. § 4303
Section 4303 · Inspection and testing
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Sprietsma v. Mercury Marine Dissent Corrected (2001)
Most recently applied in 197 Ill. 2d 112 - Sprietsma v. Mercury Marine (August 2001)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) Subject to regulations, supervision, and reviews that the Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may delegate to a person, private or public agency, or organization, or to an officer or employee under the supervision of that person or agency, any work, business, or function related to the testing, inspection, and examination necessary for compliance enforcement and for the development of data to enable the Secretary to prescribe regulations under section 4302 of this title.
(b) The Secretary may—
(1) conduct research, testing, and development necessary to carry out this chapter, including the procurement by negotiation or otherwise of experimental and other recreational vessels or associated equipment for research and testing purposes; and
(2) subsequently sell those vessels.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section 4303 authorizes the Secretary to delegate to certain persons or agencies or organizations any work, business, or function related to the testing, inspection, and examination necessary for compliance enforcement. The Secretary may also conduct research, testing, and development necessary to carry out this chapter, including procurement of vessels and equipment and their subsequent sale. The Committee wishes to make clear that the Secretary may sell anything that was purchased to test.