CHAPTER II
ADMIRALTY JURISDICTION
ApMIRALTY jurisdiction! in civil matters has been simplified
and extended by the Colonial Courts of Admiralty Act, 1890.2
under s. 2 of which every Court of law in a British possession
which is for the time being declared to be a Court of Admiralty
and which has therein original unlimited civil jurisdiction
shall be a Court of Admiralty, and for the purposes of this
Admiralty jurisdiction exercise all the powers which are
possessed in its ordinary jurisdiction. The jurisdiction of
a Colonial Court of Admiralty is assimilated by the Act to
the Admiralty jurisdiction of the High Court in England,
and the Colonial Court of Admiralty may exercise such
jurisdiction in like manner and to as full an extent as the
High Court in England, and shall have the same regard as
that Court to international law and the comity of nations.
Any references to Vice-Admiralty Courts in Imperial or
Colonial enactments are to apply to Colonial Courts of
Admiralty, with the necessary changes of terminology, but
the jurisdiction under the Naval Prize Act, 1864, and under
the Slave Trade Act, 1873, which is conferred exclusively on
the High Court of Admiralty or the High Court of Justice,
a8 distinet from the Vice-Admiralty Courts. shall not be
! Under this head will also be treated jurisdiction conferred by Imperial
Acts in other matters not technically Admiralty jurisdiction. Cf. Quick
and Garran, Constitution of Commonwealth, pp. 797 seq.
* As regards criminal offences the Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act, 1849,
rules the position ; the Act of 1890 was intended to simplify and extend
the civil jurisdiction of Colonial Courts, and to supersede the Imperial
Vice-Admiralty Courts already existing, which were regulated by the Acts
26 & 27 Vict. c¢. 24 and 30 & 31 Vict. c. 45. Cf. Barton v. The Queen,
2 Moo. P. Ct. 19; Rolet v. The Queen, 1 P. C. 198. Piracy is justiciable by
the Colonial Courts also by international law, and see Forsyth, Causes and
Npinions on Constitutional Law, pp. 90-118.
