It's not meaningless, but a law dictionary doesn't mean it's good law. And a "case number" doesn't change that. Especially a case number from an obviously very old case.
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You're wrong. And I am one of those lawyers, and I am 100% confident in this one (unlike many legal questions where the answer isn't clear).
A law dictionary is a useful thing to have, but it is not "law". In the best of circumstances, a law dictionary is "persuasive" authority. The case law underlying the definition itself can be binding precedent, but the only way to know that is to look at the case, and check that case for whether it is still good law. It may have been overruled by a later case, or it may simply no longer apply for any number of reasons. One of which could be regulations passed after it was decided, or superseding facts.
But under no circumstances can you cite to Black's Law Dictionary and say "this has the answer, case closed".
Danno fires shot across bow of pirates.
Paging Mtn Girl to the divorce thread before all hell breaks loose.
I know right? Don Rickles up there making mean unfunny jokes about this, nobody needs that.
So it's a starting point... like wikipedia. Nobody besides a 6th grader would cite it, but it usually gives you a good overview along with sources to start with...
Probably, the laws that govern the license for commercial vessels define anchor or night watch. Usually in statues they have a section that defines things.
Probably a lawyer could look it up, but that would be like 300 dollars an hour.
My point was that its not an arbitrary term left to interpretation.
The phrase is clearly defined in relation to commercial vessels and licensing requirements somewhere.
That is absolutely false. The US Navy uses the terms Port and Starboard when referring to the navigation of a ship.
They do use right and left for non-navigation related items, "Sailor ! Hold that signal flag in your right hand !" (they don't call it your starboard hand...)
Signed,
former Naval Lieutenant Harry
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yeah that was wack, come on goat, do better
Harry, what about Red, Right, Returning?:wink:
Whether navigational bouys are green to port and red to starboard or the opposite depends entirely upon what region of the world you are navigating. The IALA established two regions: Region A and Region B.
Region A consists of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, parts of Africa and most of Asia. When entering a harbor in this region, marks to port are red and marks to starboard are green.
Region B consists of North America, Central America and South America, plus the Philippines, Japan and Korea. When entering a harbor in this region, marks to port are green and marks to starboard are red (red, right, return!).
Absolutely false. Is that different from false? Anyway, thank you.
Hey, I read it right here on TGR--discussion a couple of years ago about a collision between a naval vessel and a merchant ship. If you can't trust TGR, what can you trust?
we try to keep the standards high here
I am not baked enough apparently. Fortunately I ave the means to rectify that.
so you do rso suppositories?
Does the US Navy use righty-tightly lefty-loosely?
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No, it's not even a starting point.
Look, as a lawyer who doesn't practice maritime law and knows nothing about this area of law, I wouldn't dream of calling it a starting point, or claiming that because it's defined in the law dictionary that it must be defined in statute/regs and not be an ambiguous term. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. A law dictionary doesn't mean much except in limited circumstances.
Statutes and regs often do have a definitions section. You'd be amazed at how often those sections don't define the term that is important to you when you're looking at an issue. And even when they do, the definition is frequently unsatisfying or not dispositive, and you still spend time arguing about what the definition means.
If you want to keep insisting that the definition in the law dictionary is the answer here or even a starting point, knock yourself out. But I'm telling you the law dictionary means very little. In my 15+year career, I've had one, maybe two issues where the definition there was up for debate, and even for those it was one citation among many, because when it comes to legal arguments, you can't hang your hat on what Black's Law Dictionary says. And it's very rarely where any lawyer would turn when starting to research a new issue.
I was in the coast guard and we certainly used port and starboard for helm commands.
Unlike left and right, "port" and "starboard" refer to fixed locations on a vessel.