University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Law Faculty Publications School of Law 1999 Treasure Salvage and the United States Supreme Court: Issues Remaining After Brother Jonathan John Paul Jones University of Richmond,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/law-faculty-publications Part of the Admiralty Commons Recommended Citation John Paul Jones,Treasure Salvage and the United States Supreme Court: Issues Remaining After Brother Jonathan, 30 J. Mar. L. & Com. 205 (1999) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce, Vol. 30, No. 2, April, 1999 The United States Supreme Court and Treasure Salvage: Issues Remaining After Brother Jonathan JOHN PAUL JONES* I INTRODUCTION On April 22, 1998, the United States Supreme Court announced its decision in California v. Deep Sea Research, Inc., 1 a case of shipwreck salvage begun as a maritime action in rem. Because the Court does not often accept cases of admiralty and maritime law, its decision was eagerly anticipated by American maritime lawyers and constitutionalists, both for what it might say about the Eleventh Amendment and sovereign immunity in a federal system and how it might limit Congressional power to alter the general maritime law and admiralty jurisdiction. Also anxious for the Court's decision were the few maritime lawyers who practice what has become known as treasure salvage law.