Page:Halsbury Laws of England v1 1907.pdf/281

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Pa rt

Part Sect.

I.

I.

In tkod uct ion.

59

—Introduction.

History of Admiralty Jurisdiction Generally.

1.

86. The seal of the Judicial Committee of the Priv}^ Council, with which, until the coming into operation of the Judicature Act, 1873 {a), every order in Admiralt}^ appeals was sealed, bears on its face the words, " Ab Edgare Vindico," thus picturesquely suggesting a very ancient origin of the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court.

Whether, ho^yever, Admiralty jurisdiction in England, as we now understand it, took its origin from Saxon times (/>), or from the times of Henry 1. (r), when the record of an ordinance at Ipswich {d) clearly refers to the Admiral's Court, at all events, in the reign of Edward III. the authority of the Crown {e) to administer justice in respect of piracy or spoil and other offences committed on the sea was undisputed. As a not unnatural consequence of possessing this criminal jurisdiction (/), the Court of the Lord High Admiral began to hear disputes in all civil matters connected with the sea, gradually usurping also a jurisdiction over cases arisin<jj in inland tidal waters. In consequence of this encroachment on the province of the Courts of Common Law, two statutes {g) were passed in the reign of Richard 11. confining the admirals and their deputies to things done upon the sea, and in the main streams of great rivers beneath the bridges. The criminal jurisdiction of the xdmiralty as adjusted by these statutes continued until the twenty-eighth year of Henry VIII., when it was to a great extent transferred to connnissioners of oyer and terminer under the Great Seal, of whom one was the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty {h).

Sect.

1

Admiralty Jurisdiction. ..

^^"^S'"-

Civil matters,

87. The civil jurisdiction of the Admiralty continued within the Conflict with hmits laid down by the statutes of Richard II., but its exercise common law ^' from the reign of Elizabeth to the reign of Charles II. involved ^^"^ the Admiralty Court in a long struggle with the superior courts of Common Law. The Common Law Courts issued prohibitions to their rival whenever any matter arose of which the Common Law (a) (6) i'.

36 & 37 Yict. c. 66. The Act came into operation on November 1, 1875. See 2 Co. Litt. 260 b Prynne, Animadversions on the 4th Institute,

123.

See The Zda, [1892] P. 285, 300. (''/) Ordhiance of I[)swich, Eolls Series, Monumenta Juridica The Black Book of the Admiralty, Vol. I., edited by Sir Travers Twiss. See Prynne, Animadversions on the 4th Institute, p. 106. (e) IL V. Keyti (1876), 2 Ex D. 63, at p. 167, per CocKBUHN, O.J. (./) SeeSelectPleasof the Court of Admiralty, a.d. 1390— 1602 (Selden Society's Bubhcations), by B. G. Marsden (1892—1897). (j/)13 llich. 2, st. 1, c. 5 (repealed by the Civil Procedure Acts Bepeal Act, l'S79 (42 & 43 Vict, c. 59), but with a saving of its effect so far as iurisdiction is concerned), and 15 Bich. 2, c. 3 (repealed in part by 42 & 43 Yict. c. 59). [h) 28 Hen. 8, c. 15. The jurisdiction of the Admiralty over criminal oltences committed at sea was ultimately regulated by 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 36 s. 22, 5Hid the Admiralty Offences Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 2). See also It. v. Keij7>, f<"pro, at The Hercules (1819), 2 Dods. at p. 371. pp. 66, 67 {

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