Also known as: high seas
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The high seas or deep ocean waters lying beyond the territorial jurisdiction of any nation.
Congress enacts a statute imposing uniform duties on goods carried by vessels crossing the high seas between foreign ports and U.S. harbors. Avalon Pharmaceuticals ships its products aboard a foreign-flagged carrier that encounters the duty assessment upon arrival. The uniformity requirement of Article I Section 8 is satisfied because the levy applies identically regardless of the vessel's origin.
Anika Anand, a Louisiana resident, sues American Dredging Co. in state court after suffering injury while working on a dredge operating on the high seas. The company removes the case and argues that federal maritime law governs exclusively. The court applies federal rules because the incident occurred beyond any state's territorial waters.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
East River Steamship Corp. charters a vessel whose turbine fails while the ship is hundreds of miles from land on the high seas. The charterer sues the turbine manufacturer in admiralty for economic losses alone. The court dismisses the tort claim because the damage occurred in a maritime setting governed by uniform federal rules rather than state product liability law.
During the War of 1812 the President authorizes seizure of British cargo found aboard a neutral vessel encountered on the high seas. Brown, the cargo owner, challenges the forfeiture in federal court. The court upholds the seizure as an incident of the executive's war powers exercised beyond territorial limits.
United States prosecutors charge several defendants with piracy after they attack a merchant ship on the high seas. The defendants argue that the federal statute exceeds congressional authority. The court sustains the indictment because Congress possesses explicit constitutional power to define and punish offenses occurring on the high seas.
The President issues an order directing the Coast Guard to intercept foreign vessels suspected of aiding piracy on the high seas. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. challenges the order as beyond executive authority. The court examines whether the directive falls within the President's independent powers over foreign commerce and naval operations conducted beyond U.S. waters.
Yes. Federal courts possess admiralty jurisdiction over claims arising from traditional maritime activities such as ocean carriage under a bill of lading when the events occur on the high seas. The location beyond territorial waters supplies an independent basis for subject-matter jurisdiction even when state-law theories are pleaded.
Yes. Article I Section 8 expressly grants Congress power to define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas. This authority supports federal criminal statutes that reach discharges or other offenses by vessels operating beyond territorial limits.
The offense is deemed committed in the district from which the vessel departed when the conduct on the high seas is connected to that departure. Convenience factors are then weighed only within that proper district.
…offices and post roads, cl. 7, or to grant patents and copyrights, cl. 8, or to "punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas," cl. 10. It might not even need the power to raise and support an Army and Navy, cls. 12 and 13, for fewer people would engage in commercial shipping if they thought that a foreign power…