APPENDIXES

APPENDIX A.—MARITIME LAW

Development and Adoption

THE maritime law of the United States at present is a composite
of court decisions of varying degrees of modernness, and codes
and compilations of law running back to the middle ages and beyond.
No recent codification of this law has been attempted; and while it is
assumed to be of general acceptance by the nations of the world
interested in maritime affairs there are considerable local variations.
Like international law, maritime law has effect in any country only
in so far as it is accepted and enforced therein.
Without definition, the Constitution, Article ITI, declares that the
Federal judicial power extends “to all cases of admiralty and maritime
jurisdiction.” The only implication can be that a general understanding
 of the meaning of such language was assumed. What it
then signified is of less importance than what its present meaning is,
as indicated by the decisions of courts and modified in measure by
congressional enactment.
A brief summary of its provisions and of the acts affecting the older
constructions is submitted as of interest in a study of accidents and
recoveries therefor, and especially in view of the great difference
between admiralty and the widely prevalent idea of compensation.
Status and Rights of Seamen Suffering Injury
Distinctive Features

Among the several factors that operate to give to seamen a legal
and an economic status that differs from that of employed persons
generally, two may be noted as especially influential: First, the absoute
 dependence of the sailor upon his master for the necessaries of
life—food, lodging, care in case of sickness or accident, etc., on
account of his isolation from other recourse; and second, a like dependence
 of the master upon the continued and constantly available
 services of his employee until the completion of his undertaking.
 These facts alone are sufficient to go far toward explaining the
peculiarities evident on the one hand in the rules of Liability for care
and cure, and the application of the fellow-service rule, and the doctrines
 of assumed risks and contributory negligence, all of which are
differently developed in admiralty from the more familiar forms of
the common law; and on the other hand, in the methods of enforcing
the performance of contracts (e. g., by fines, imprisonment, or flog-105676°—28——4
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