The Schooner Exchange v McFaddon (Sovereign Immunity)

In 1809 the French Emperor Napoleon was at war in Europe and had issued orders for his navy to capture vessels including private vessels which would be suitable for naval service. Consequently the French navy captured a sailing schooner called the Exchange which was owned by two Americans named McFadden and Greetham. The following year France and the United States were at peace and the same vessel now known as the Ballau put into the port of Philadelphia. McFadden and Greetham commenced an action to recover the vessel which they said properly belonged to them. There seems to be no doubt that the vessel was in fact their boat. The court however had to carefully consider the implications of essentially confiscating a navy vessel from a country at peace with the United States. This meant considering how the sovereignty of the USA interacted with the sovereignty of France. Chief Justice Roberts said the jurisdiction of the nation within its own territory is necessarily exclusive and absolute. It is susceptible of no limitation not imposed by itself. All exceptions therefore to the full and complete power of a nation within its own territories must be traced up to the consent of the nation itself. They can flow from no other legitimate source. Now of course the vessel in this case was not within French territory and the court extended the principle to say this full and absolute territorial jurisdiction being alike the attribute of every sovereign and being incapable of conferring extraterritorial power would not seem to contemplate foreign sovereigns nor their sovereign rights as its objects. In other words it was not legitimate for a country to exercise its sovereignty in a way that sought to limit or regulate the sovereignty of another country. The court then found that navy vessels have a very particular connection to national sovereignty. They said the ports of a friendly nation are considered as open to the public ships of all powers with whom it is at peace and they are supposed to enter such ports and to remain in them while allowed to remain under the protection of the government of the place. Sadly for McFadden and Greetham the result was that they did not get their boat back because such an order would have represented an impermissible interference by the United States with the sovereignty of France as expressed in its naval fleet.