WRIGHT— POWER TO MEET RESPONSIBILITIES. 289 



have been given jurisdiction over offenses committed by American 

 citizens within the country wherein the court exercises authority, if 

 the offense is one defined by act of Congress or by common law as 

 supplemented by regulations issued by the American minister in that 

 country .^^ 



131. Statutory Criminal Jurisdiction of Federal Courts. 



However, as has been noted, a considerable number of offenses 

 against international law have been defined by Congress and the 

 federal courts have been given cognizance of them. The statutes 

 relating to the protection of diplomatic officers, to piracies and 

 offenses on the high seas, to offenses against foreign governments 

 or territory and to most offenses against treaties are always oper- 

 ative. Those punishing offenses against neutrality, however, are 

 operative only during the existence of foreign hostilities, the recog- 

 nition of which belongs to the President. The President has usually 

 issued a formal neutrality proclamation calling attention to the neu- 

 trality laws,°"^ but the courts have held that the neutrality laws may 

 be applied against insurgents who have in fact been recognized as 

 such by the political departments of the government even if no 

 such formal proclamation has issued : ^" 



" The distinction," said the Supreme Court, " between recognition of 

 belligerency and recognition of a condition of political revolt, between recog- 

 nition of the existence of war in a material sense and of war in a legal sense, 

 is sharply illustrated by the case before us. For here the political department 

 has not recognized the existence of a de facto belligerent power engaged in 

 hostility with Spain, but has recognized the existence of insurrectionary war- 

 fare prevailing before, at the time and since this forfeiture is alleged to have 

 been incurred." 



132. Admiralty Jurisdiction of Federal Courts. 



Although criminal jurisdiction must be given very specifically; 

 by act of Congress, this is not true of admiralty jurisdiction. In 

 order to enforce neutrality the courts have assumed jurisdiction to 



93 Rev. Stat., sec. 4086; Moore, Digest, 2: 631. 



96 Printed in Richardson, Messages, see index, " Neutrality," and Wright. 

 Enforcement of Int. Law, p. 115. For those of World War see Naval War 

 College, Int. Law Doc, 1916. p. 82. 



9- The Three Friends, 166 U. S. (1897)- 



