CO129-562-2 Chung Chi Cheung- appeal against death sentence 1-1-1937 - 31-12-1938 — Page 17

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a territorial enalave.

On the contrary those laws must

as a general rule be respected.

Exceptions to this

obligation exist in the case of acts beginning and

ending on board the ship and taking no effect externally

to her, in all matters in which the economy of the

ship or the relations of persons on board to each other

are exclusively touched".

And again (para 78) "With regard to ships of war

and other public ships little need be said. The fiction

of territoriality is useless, but it is harmless; because

it cannot cause larger privileges to be attributed to such

vessels than they are acknowledged for other reasons to

possess. They represent the sovereignty and independence

of their State more fully than anything else can represent

it on the occan; they can only be met by their equals there,

and equals cannot exercise jurisdiction over equals. The

jurisdiction of their own state over them is therefore

exclusive under all circumstances, and any act of inter-

ference with them on the part of a foreign state is an

act of war".

To the former of those citations the learned author

appends a footnote which is not without significance on

the facts of the case which we are here examining:-

"The case which, however, would be extremely rare

on board a ship of war, of a crime committed by a subject

of the state within which the vessel is lying against a

fellow subject would no doubt be an exception to this. It

would be the duty of the captain to surrender the criminal".

So far as judicial decisions go the first case to be

carefully considered is and always will be The Exchange

(7 Cranch 116).

Wheaton (4th Edition p. 152) summarises the material

portions of the judgment thus:-

"In delivering the judgment of the Court in this case,

Mr. Chief Justice Maraball stated that the jurisdiction