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What Is a Vessel? Without a shadow of precedent to go by, the Justice Department defined the floating island as "a vessel on the high seas," and set out to prosecute Escamilla under maritime provisions of the U.S. Criminal Code. Legal experts were dubious. Richard Baxter, a professor of international law at Harvard, argued that the ice island's definition is irrelevant. According to Baxter, the U.S. has jurisdiction because the case involved its citizens working for its Government. Canada, which keeps a jealous eye on Arctic waters, entered a formal diplomatic "reservation" informing the U.S. that it would not consider itself bound by the decision in this case. "If Canada decides to claim jurisdiction on an extension of its territorial waters," said a State Department lawyer, "we could have a mess." Then there were the Danes. Since Escamilla, en route back to the States, had first touched any sovereign nation's territory at Thule in Danish Greenland, it was suggested that Denmark might have the right to try him under its status of-forces agreement with the U.S.
While international lawyers had their field day, Escamilla's case was brought before a federal grand jury at Norfolk under the venue established when he landed at Dulles Airport. Last week, after a U.S. magistrate had overruled the defense's first challenge to the Government's jurisdiction, the grand jury indicted the belligerent wine drinker on a charge of murder in the second degree. There is much more to be heard. If Escamilla is convicted, his case could reach the Supreme Court or even the World Court at The Hague.