CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-RELATION OF FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS- TITLE OF UNITED STATES TO TIDELANDS

Authors

John K. DeLay, Jr., University of Michigan Law School

Abstract

For the past decade and a half, one of the most harrassing problems in the realm of federal-state relationships has been that concerned with the ownership of the so-called "tidelands." This struggle of interests, which involves 23,000 square miles of offshore lands within the boundaries of the littoral states, has developed since 1937; for prior to that time, the Federal Government recognized the states' claims, making no assertion of federal ownership. The development of the conflict appears to be coextensive with the discovery and development of valuable mineral deposits found under these submerged lands, which have been leased to private corporations. As early as 1921 California began leasing to oil companies some of the lands under the Pacific Ocean, with the Gulf Coast states following the plan in later years.

Recommended Citation

John K. DeLay, Jr., CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-RELATION OF FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS- TITLE OF UNITED STATES TO TIDELANDS, 50 Mich. L. Rev. 114 (1951).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol50/iss1/6