Hovering Act Law and Legal Definition
Hovering Act is a statute developed in Great Britain that applies to a coastal country’s criminal jurisdiction over ships, and persons aboard those ships, when the ships are outside the country’s territory. Hovering Act provides for the prohibition and restriction of the loitering of foreign or domestic vessels within the prescribed limits of a coastal nation.
The British Hovering Act, 1736 paved way for the enactment of American statute of the U.S. Tariff Act. In the U.S. the Tariff Act of 1922, authorizes the officer of the U.S. coast guard to stop and board vessel at any place within four leagues of the coast of the U.S. for the purpose of searching and examining the vessel and to seize the vessel. [Cook v. United States, 288 U.S. 102, 114 (U.S. 1933)]
