Beyond the sea: The expansion of the U.S. admiralty jurisdiction over aviation cases

One of the unique features of the judicial system in U.S. is the adoption of admiralty jurisdiction. The determination of whether a case is really an admiralty case that triggers admiralty jurisdiction is not as clear as it might seem. Admiralty jurisdiction is not determined by the mere involvement of a vessel in the case or even by the occurrence of an event on a waterway. As a general rule, a case is within admiralty jurisdiction if it arises from an accident on the navigable waters (locus test) and involves some connection of maritime commerce (nexus test). Applying federal maritime law to a case within admiralty jurisdiction is important because in many respects such law differs from normal state law. Regarding this, there has been a struggling to enjoy admiralty jurisdiction for some aviation cases which sufficiently pass locus or nexus test, This article mainly focuses on the relation between admiralty jurisdiction and aviation claims and its applicable jurisdiction. In order to invoke admiralty jurisdiction for the aviation claims, there might be two possible routes: (1) the direct or statutory way, and (2) the indirect way. The direct or statutory method is somewhat simple and clear, because the invoking of admiralty jurisdiction is the result of statutory interpretation of federal law by the Congress such as DOHSA. The most part of Chapter III of this article will explore this direct application issue with DOHSA. Meanwhile, the indirect way has developed by the judge made case law from the remarkable decisions such as Executive Jet or Kirby. The established criteria and its application will be discussed on Chapter II and a part of Chapter III. In conclusion, this article tries to indicate a category for certain aviation contracts or torts which can invoke the federal admiralty jurisdiction.