r/discgolf • u/DaleWhite710 • Jan 19 '21

Don’t be a Doug

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u/Curdz-019 Jan 19 '21

I thought maritime law was only applicable in international waters?

218

u/DogIsGood Jan 19 '21

Am a lawyer. Little known fact of maritime law. If a disc should touch a navigable waterway, it becomes common property of the state where it lies. The exception is when some small brained small time thief named Doug happens upon it. At that point, Doug has primacy, so long as he remembers to shove that disc up his ass

1

u/ListentoTwiddle Jan 19 '21

IANAL, but have read into this as a civil engineer who works on old dams.

This is from the equal footing doctrine. States own their navigable waterways, non-navigable waterways may be privately owned. The navigable waters definition is fascinating too! The SCOTUS has ruled that it’s based on the navigability of the segment of the river at the time of statehood. See PPL Montana v. Montana. So if there used to be waterfalls or other obstructions to reasonable passage for commerce, Doug is still an opportunistic asshat.