Lecture on John Jay and the Sloop Betsey case
October 25, 2023 @ 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Join Mark C. Dillon, author of The First Chief Justice, for a lecture on John Jay. The American Foreign Law Association is sponsoring a lecture on John Jay's role in the Sloop Betsey case, where the United States established for the first time the jurisdiction of the federal courts to hear privateering cases on the high seas between privateers acting on behalf of a foreign nation seizing vessels or cargo belonging to Americans. The case was significant in that it repudiated the use of Prize Courts, contrary to the international legal norms of the time.