Compact of 1958, Annotated Code of Maryland
Virginia exhibit 3
Under the provisons
of the Maryland Declaration of Rights and the Constitution as as amended
to date, it is likely that the Compacts of 1785 and 1958 between Maryland
and Virginia with regard to the navigation and fishery resources of the
Potomac River are unconstitutional. Because the Compact of
1785 modifies the sovereignty of Maryland, in order for it to have been
adopted, it should have been passed by two successive legislatures with
an intervening general election. For the Compact of 1958 to have
been constitutional it should have been submitted to referendum.
Neither course of action was taken. For the 1776 Constitutional requirements
see: http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/000001/000078/html/index.html
For 1958 see:http://ssl.csg.org/compactlaws/potomacriverof1958.html.
MARYLAND
Article - Natural Resources
§4-306.
Preamble
Whereas, Maryland and Virginia are both
vitally interested in conserving and improving the valuable fishery resources
of the tidewater portion of the Potomac River, and
Whereas, certain provisions of the Compact
of 1785 between Maryland and Virginia having become obsolete, Maryland
and Virginia each recognizing that Maryland is the owner of
the Potomac River bed and waters to the low watermark of the southern
shore thereof; as laid out on the Matthews-Nelson Survey of 1927, and that
Virginia is the owner of the Potomac
River bed and waters southerly from said low watermark as laid out,
and that the citizens of Virginia have certain riparian rights along the
southern shore of the river, as shown on said
Matthews-Nelson Survey, and, in common with the citizens of Maryland,
the right of fishing in said river, Maryland and Virginia have agreed that
the necessary conservation and
improvement of the tidewater portion of the Potomac fishery resources
can be best achieved by a commission comprised of representatives of both
Maryland and Virginia, charged with
the establishment and maintenance of a program to conserve and improve
these resources,
….
Article VII. Effect on Existing Laws and Prior Compact
Section 1. The rights, including the
privilege of erecting and maintaining wharves and other improvements, of
the citizens of each state along the shores of the Potomac River
adjoining their lands shall be neither diminished, restricted, enlarged,
increased nor otherwise altered by this compact, and the decisions of the
courts construing that portion of Article
VII of the Compact of 1785 relating to the rights of riparian owners
shall be given full force and effect. |
