Law Dictionary: Maritime Law

The traditional body of rules and practices particularly relating to commerce and navigation, to business transacted at sea or relating to navigation, ships, seamen, harbors, and general maritime affairs, 318 U.S. 36; it "is entirely distinct from the municipal law of the land. It is, and always has been, a body of law separate and distinctive from every other jurisprudence. The Constitution of the United States transferred this jurisprudence from the sovereignty of the states to that of the nation. The maritime law proper finds its expression now only in the national will