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Full-Text Articles in Law

Commerce And Tradition As Gatekeepers Of Admiralty: Falsity And Futility, Graydon S. Staring Jul 2013

Commerce And Tradition As Gatekeepers Of Admiralty: Falsity And Futility, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

The use of traditional maritime activity and disruption of maritime commerce as conditions of admiralty tort jurisdiction has no foundation in history or jurisprudence. They conflict with understandings and positive legislation of Congress and cause confusion and fruitless litigation about their meanings and application.


"Stream-Of-Commerce" Inadequate To Found Jurisdiction; Asahi Resolved, Graydon S. Staring Jan 2012

"Stream-Of-Commerce" Inadequate To Found Jurisdiction; Asahi Resolved, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

This article describes the division of the Spreme Court in the Asahi case in 1987 as to whether one who places an article in the "stream-of-commerce" without more thereby submits to the jurisdiction of the courts of a state in which it causes injury or damage; the conflicts on the point for years thereafter; the Court's resolution of the conflict in 2011 by deciding that the defendant's doing so without action purposefully directed toward that state is inadequate; reservations for the future by concurring justices and a dissent; and questions that must remain about the adequacy of such additonal actions …


The Equity Of The M/S Bremen And Its Extraordinary Influence, Graydon S. Staring Jan 2012

The Equity Of The M/S Bremen And Its Extraordinary Influence, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

It is rare that an admiralty case will be widely influential in other fields of law. Such a one was the case of The Bremen. The Supreme Court unanimously renounced the past hostility to forum selection clauses and held them enforceable in Equity by way of admiralty, a precedent soon widely copied as a reform in common law. Note: The intention to publish a larger article on this subject has been abandoned.


The Lingering Influence Of Richard Ii And Lord Coke In The American Admiralty, Graydon S. Staring Apr 2010

The Lingering Influence Of Richard Ii And Lord Coke In The American Admiralty, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

It must be fair to say that a useful commercial and legal regime should be spread as wide as its usefulness, with as few artificial and irrelevant barriers as possible. All of our irrelevant barriers have been discredited in various situations, but two of them, viz. as to contracts made on land or to be performed in part on land, remain anomalously in two irrational and inconvenient applications. As they have no statutory sanction, they can be corrected by the courts, just as they have nullified them both in other situations and rationalized the jurisdiction in other respects. Cease the …


The American Admiralty: Division And Devolution, Graydon S. Staring Jan 2009

The American Admiralty: Division And Devolution, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

THE AMERICAN ADMIRALTY: DIVISION AND DEVOLUTION By Graydon S. Staring* Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION II. DEVELOPMENT AND DEFINITION AS A CUSTOM- ARY REGIME A. Early Development B. The Jurisdiction Developed as of 1789 C. The Substance of Admiralty Undivided III. DIVISION AND DEVOLUTION A. The Transfer of Essential Functions 1. The Navy Itself 2. Lawmaking, Regulatory and Police Powers B. Devolutions to Departments, Agencies and Courts 1. To Department of Homeland Security a) U.S. Coast Guard b) Bureau of Customs and Border Security 2. To the Army Corps of Engineers 3. To NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service 4. To …


The Admiralty Jurisdiction Of Torts And Crimes And The Failed Search For Its Purposes, Graydon S. Staring Oct 2007

The Admiralty Jurisdiction Of Torts And Crimes And The Failed Search For Its Purposes, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

This article views the jurisdiction, or power, of the Admiral in its historic setting as that of a governor, a ruler, of the offshore waters claimed by the kings. He had military, legislative (regulatory), police and judicial powers, the recognition of which became customary for maritime nations. The judicial jurisdiction comprised the legal questions that arose from his other functions. Like the rest of his powers, it was territorial rather than defined by other subject matter. This was the situation when the Constitution was adopted, when admiralty in its broadest form known to us was found in the colonies and …


A Return To Objectivity In Admiralty Tort Jurisdiction?, Graydon S. Staring Jul 2006

A Return To Objectivity In Admiralty Tort Jurisdiction?, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

This paper discusses an important opinion, Tagliere v. Harrah’s Illinois Corp. giving effect to words long ignored in the Admiralty Extension Act in the setting of materials adapted from some of a longer article in preparation, tentatively entitled “The Admiralty Jurisdiction Whole: Delusions of “Purpose”.