Admiralty law (usually referred to as simply admiralty and also referred to as maritime law) is a distinct body of law which governs maritime questions and offenses. Under conventions of international law, the flag flown by a ship generally determines the source of law to be applied in admiralty cases, regardless of which court has personal jurisdiction over the parties.
Admiralty law was introduced into England by Eleanor of Aquitaine while she was acting as regent for her son King Richard the Lionhearted. She had earlier established admiralty law on the island of Oleron (where it was published as the Rolls of Oleron) in her own lands (but she is often referred to in admiralty law books as "Eleanor of Guyenne"), having learned about it in the eastern Mediterranean while on Crusade with her first husband, King Louis VII of France. In England special courts, admiralty courts handle all admiralty cases. These courts do not use the common law of England, but are civil law courts based upon the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian.
In the United States, admiralty is under the jurisdiction of the federal courts. However, admiralty courts in the United States are courts of limited jurisdiction, so state courts have concurrent jurisdiction in admiralty when state law claims are at issue. Moreover, state courts may have jurisdiction in admiralty when the matters being adjudicated are local in nature.
The outer limit of the territorial sea is the line every point of which is at a distance from the nearest point of the baseline equal to the breadth of the territorial sea.
In the case of islands situated on atolls or of islands having fringing reefs, the baseline for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea is the seaward low-water line of the reef, as shown by the appropriate symbol on charts officially recognized by the coastal State.
Where a low-tide elevation is situated wholly or partly at a distance not exceeding the breadth of the territorial sea from the mainland or an island, the low-water line on that elevation may be used as the baseline for measuring the breadth of the territorial sea.
Similarly, state parties to the Law of the Sea Convention 1982, in association with the Authority, and state enterprises or natural or juridical persons which possess the nationality of state parties or are effectively controlled by them or their nationals, when sponsored by such states may exploit the Area in association with the Authority.
It is this reformulation of Grotius' principle that the Law of the Sea Convention 1982 caries.
Under the Law of Treaties Convention 1969, non-state parties to a treaty may accept to be regulated by provisions of a particular treaty, and so states that are not parties to the Law of the Sea Convention 1982 can benefit from the adoption of this position.
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