sion, still in effect, which enables parties to avail
themselves in State courts of such remedies as the common law is
competent to give,[380] but in such cases the rights and obligations
involved are still determined by the maritime law.[381]

Concessions to State Power

Nor does the exclusiveness of federal admiralty jurisdiction preclude
the States from creating rights enforceable in admiralty courts. In The
"Lottawanna,"[382] it was held that federal district courts sitting in
admiralty could enforce liens given for security of a contract even when
created by State laws. Likewise liabilities created by State statutes
for injuries resulting in death have been enforced by proceedings _in
rem_ in federal admiralty courts,[383] and, in the absence of
Congressional legislation, a State may enact laws governing the rights
and obligations of its citizens on the high seas. Under this general
rule a law of Delaware providing for damages for wrongful death was
enforced in an admiralty proceeding against a vessel arising out of a
collision at sea of two vessels owned by Delaware corporations.[384] And
in 1940, in Just _v._ Chambers,[385] the Supreme Court held specifically
applicable in admiralty proceedings the law of Florida whereby a cause
of action for personal injury due to another's negligence survives the
death of the tort-feasor against his estate and against the vessel.

The Jensen Case and Its Sequelae

In the face of these decisions, except the last, the Court,
nevertheless, held in 1917 in Southern Pacific Co. _v._ Jensen[386] that
a New York Workman's Compensation statute was unconstitutional as
applied to employees engaged in maritime work. Proceeding on the
assumption that "Congress has paramount power to fix and determine the
maritime law which shall prevail through the country," and that in the
absence of a controlling statute the general maritime law as accepted by
the federal courts is a part of American national law, Justice
McReynolds proceeded to draw an analogy between the power of the States
to legislate on admiralty and maritime matters and their power to
legislate on matters affecting interstate commerce. Just as the States
may not regulate interstate commerce where the subject is national in
character and requires uniform regulation, so, he argued, they may not
legislate on maritime matters in such fashion as to destroy "the very
uniformity in respect to maritime matters which the Constitution