Additional Light on the Origins of Federal Admiralty Jurisdiction

Professor Casto returns once again to the origins of federal admiralty jurisdiction. Using an essay by Peter Stephen Du Ponceau as support, Professor Casto forcefully argues that to understand the Founders’ attitudes towards admiralty litigation, one must approach the topic as a public-litigation paradigm as opposed to the modern private-litigation paradigm. He also responds to Professor Jonathan M. Gutoff’s of the public-litigation thesis.