[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 68 (Thursday, May 26, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          PROTECT AMERICAN PROPERTY RIGHTS FROM EXPROPRIATION

                                 ______


                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 26, 1994

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, over the past 1,500 years, a coherent and 
consistent body of admiralty law has evolved that has guided the 
conduct of nations and sailors on the high seas.
  Adherence by the nations of the world to this international body of 
admiralty law has been remarkable. The relative tranquility between 
nations over disputes arising out of admiralty law is due in large 
measure to the recognition by all nations that only when such rules are 
recognized and followed by all can trade and commerce prosper, and 
chaos be avoided, on the high seas.
  In the main, admiralty law has worked so well that few have paid it 
any notice. Unilateral, flagrant, and arbitrary defiance of well-
recognized and long-established rules of conduct have been rare.
  The maintenance of well established rules of admiralty was considered 
so important by our founding fathers that it is the only jurisdiction 
specifically conferred on our Federal court system by the U.S. 
Constitution. As the world's leading shipper of goods on the high seas, 
the U.S. has an important interest in seeing that admiralty law, which 
has served trade so well in the past, continues to do so in the future.
  Arbitrary disregard of well established rules of the high seas by any 
nation weakens the integrity of the system, and repeated often enough, 
could lead to a total breakdown of the system that has served us and 
the whole community of nations so well for so long.
  To underscore the importance of maintaining the integrity of the 
system of international law governing conduct on the high seas, I have 
today introduced legislation, which provides that no preferential trade 
benefits may be extended to any nation that has unilaterally 
expropriated from U.S. citizens legitimate rights in property clearly 
conferred upon them under admiralty law. Property rights here 
specifically include the long-recognized rights of ownership and of 
maritime lien under the ancient laws of finds and salvage.
  My bill is modest in that it does not compel the U.S. Government to 
take extraterritorial action against nations that have defied the laws 
of admiralty. It merely provides that where expropriation has occurred, 
no reward or preferential treatment may be extended to the offending 
nation. That is the very least that can be expected on behalf of an 
international system to which most of the nations have scrupulously 
adhered most of the time. My bill does not require a resolution of 
expropriated disputes, it merely requires the President to make a 
finding that such disputes have been addressed in an appropriate manner 
before a reward of preferential treatment can be bestowed on another 
nation. Certainly U.S. citizens whose legitimate rights have been 
expropriated can expect at least that much from their Government.
  As a case in point, way back in the early 1980's a U.S. company 
called the Sea Search Armada [SSA] discovered the long-lost Spanish 
treasure ship, the San Jose, off the coast of Colombia. Historians 
estimate the gold and silver on board to be worth $2 to $3 billion, 
some as high as $10 billion.
  A distinguished panel of Colombian jurists found that under centuries 
old unquestioned international and admiralty law, SSA as the finder was 
entitled to a preferential right to salvage the long-lost ship, and to 
the customary half of the recovered treasure.
  After first recognizing the validity of their own judicial panel's 
finding, the Colombian Government passed an after-the-fact law that the 
finders fee for the discovery of treasure would be limited to 5 percent 
and that the Colombian Government would tax half of that. This year 
Colombia's own constitutional court declared that act to be 
unconstitutional under Colombian law, just as our own courts have 
consistently found the retroactive taking away of rights and property 
conferred by admiralty law in similar cases are clearly 
unconstitutional.
  In spite of their own court's findings and in defiance of clear 
international and admiralty law governing the finding of lost treasure, 
the Government of Colombia persists in claiming total and exclusive 
ownership of the long-lost San Jose and denying any and all rights of 
the discoverer in the treasure. The Colombian Navy has prevented the 
discoverer from coming near its find for over a decade and even as I 
speak is in final preparation with a private contractor to salvage the 
San Jose.
  Such conduct should not be tolerated, but at the very least, such 
conduct should not be rewarded with preferential treatment by the 
United States. To do so would not only leave American citizens 
vulnerable to exploitation and expropriation, but would seriously 
undermine the precious system of admiralty law so carefully nurtured 
over so many centuries by so many nations. To reward such action would 
tell U.S. citizens who have invested $10 million and risked 2 years of 
their lives in order to earn rights in a treasure, that the U.S. 
Government is indifferent when those rights are expropriated by a 
foreign government. Of course we don't want to do that. It is to 
prevent such injustice that I have introduced this legislation.

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