governance reserved for the individual states
are considered in a similar manner by the state
legislatures.

The executive branch of government is
charged with enforcing the law. From the FBI
to the IRS, the executive branch carries out the
will of Congress as expressed in the United
States Code. In marine law, we see the Coast
Guard enforcing customs regulations, the Na-
tional Marine Fisheries Service enforcing fish-
eries laws, and the Army Corps of Engineers
regulating the dredging and filling of the shore-
line. At the state level, coastal zone manage-
ment agencies regulate the development of the
shore and fisheries agencies regulate the har-
vest of fisheries found in state waters.

The judicial branch exists to balance the
power of the other two sources of law. Courts
make the final decision on whether the execu-
tive branch has gone too far in enforcing an or-
dinance or whether the legislative branch has
exceeded its constitutional authority. At the fed-
eral level (and in most states), there are three
layers in the judicial system. The first is the trial
court, whose principal task is to "find the facts"
and apply the law as interpreted by higher
courts. The primary tool used by the trial court
in determining the facts is the jury. Jurors are
instructed as to the applicable law by the trial
court judge, but only they can determine the
veracity of witnesses and other critical issues of
fact. The next level in the judicial system, the
appeals court, does not reexamine the facts
found by the jury; rather, it determines if the
trial court judge correctly applied the law to the
particular facts found by the jury. If the appeals
court disagrees with the trial court's determi-
nation of the law, it reverses that decision. If
more facts must be considered to apply the law
correctly, the appeals court will reverse and re-
mand (hand back) the case to the trial court.
The U.S. and the various state supreme courts
have a similar appellate function. However,
their principal function is to guide the unifor-
mity of the law. Without a "supreme" court to
settle an issue finally, different circuit courts
within the same jurisdiction could reach differ-
ent conclusions of law based upon the same set
of facts. That lack of uniformity would destroy
the predictability so critical in the legal system.

Our study will examine the interaction of
those three sources of law, but will primarily
focus on the judicial branch with a selection of
cases which demonstrate the progressive devel-
opment of the important concepts in marine
and coastal law. Five areas of law will be stud-
ied in detail: the traditional law of the shore as
it has developed in the United States, the con-
temporary law of coastal management, state and
federal fisheries law, and selected issues in ad-
miralty law, with a particular emphasis on ves-
sel-source marine pollution.

Such a list is by no means comprehensive,
but it represents my view of which areas are of
the greatest interest and utility for a "first look"
at the wide range of issues in the general cat-
egory. Each area selected also has a strong leg-
acy of case law.

Conceptually, we will move from the shore
to the high seas, with a logical progression of
issues. However, just as a small boat is con-
stantly in motion at sea, so is the state of marine
and coastal law. It is a body of law that subtly
changes with the frequency of the tides--al-
ways evolving, moving forward in the continu-
ing struggle to balance the interests of man and
the oceans.

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