4 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA. 



foreign vessels at sea with certain exceptions, usually made in time of war. The 

 extent to which this principle of the law of flag should be carried when it comes 

 into contact with the law of the foreign port in which a vessel may find itself, 

 was the subject of contention. The United States, from the time of Chief Justice 

 Marshall, has strongly asserted the supremacy of the law of the port. The simplest 

 statement of this principle is found in Wildenhus's case (120 U. S., 11, 12): — 



"It is part of the law of civilized nations that when a merchant vessel of one 

 country enters the ports of another for the purpose of trade, it subjects itself to 

 the law of the place to which it goes, unless by treaty or otherwise the two countries 

 have come to some different understanding or agreement." 



The British maritime policy in this respect is the same and years ago was carried 

 so far as to evoke protest from the American Government. Continental nations, 

 on the other hand, and especially Germany since 1870, have been disposed to empha- 

 size the law of the flag {droit du pavilion) and to minimize the importance of 

 the law of the port. The German contention at the London Conference was forti- 

 fied by a presentation of the thorough system of inspection laws enforced on 

 German merchant vessels, to which foreign vessels are not subject in German ports. 

 The system of state workingmen's insurance against accidents and death, which 

 obtains throughout Germany, is applied to her seamen on merchant vessels. Ac- 

 cordingly, a strong and direct pecuniary interest in the safety of German ships, 

 their crews, passengers, and cargoes has been created among shipbuilders, ship- 

 owners, officers, and seamen quite apart from statutory requirements as to safety 

 such as are imposed, for example, by the laws of the United States and the United 

 Kingdom. 



Article 61, it will be noted, strives to find common ground for both principles. 

 It recognizes the principle of the law of the flag in so far as the article limits the 

 inspection by the authorities of the foreign port to verification of the conditions set 

 forth in the national certificate of safety. It recognizes the principle of the law 

 of the port in so far as it enables the local authorities to assure themselves that 

 the conditions making for safety on the vessel remain in fact such as they were cer- 

 tified to be by the national certificate. The law of the flag and the law of the port 

 become identical in fact through the safety certificate. By consent of the confer- 

 ence, this subject was referred to the American and German delegations for solu- 

 tion, and Article 61, which probably received more critical study than any other 

 one article of the Convention, was accepted without dissent as a just solution. 



In supporting this article the American delegation was sustained by a long line 

 of treaties and conventions entered into between the United States and nations with 

 which they have commercial intercourse, the purpose of which is to secure to com- 

 merce the undoubted benefits which result from abstinence on the > part of the local 

 government from interference with the discipline and internal conditions of the 

 foreign ship. To be sure, most of these treaties and conventions were entered into 



