THE ADVOCATE 629
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
from the captured ships and their loot were then divided between the
shipowners, captains and crew with a percentage of the bounty given back
to the government”.
Justice Karen Horsman, formerly with the B.C. Supreme Court, was
recently appointed to the Court of Appeal for British Columbia.
Scott A. Nielsen, Susanna Hughes and Rory W. Krentz were all recently
appointed as masters of the B.C. Supreme Court. Master Nielsen will sit in
New Westminster, Master Hughes will sit in Vancouver and Master Krentz
will sit in Abbotsford.
Privateering was outlawed in the Declaration of Paris in 1856 (initially without
the backing of the United States or, ironically, Spain, though its 16th-
century fleet had often come under attack from English privateers). At the
time that privateering was still supported by the Crown, English privateers
included Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins, both of whom (especially
the latter) also had a history of transporting slaves; Sir Martin Frobisher, who
was known as well for three attempts to find the Northwest Passage; and Sir
Walter Raleigh.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico considered the history
of El Morro (“the oldest and most strategic of the castles that formed San
Juan’s defensive system”) in the context of considering a personal injury
claim arising after a tour guide fell over a low wall there: Cassagnol-
Figueroa, 755 F.Supp. 514 (1991). The court noted:
In the sixteenth century, there was an English interest in the profits to be
had from raids on Spanish towns and shipping in the New World. At that
time Sir Francis Drake was a “human symbol of England’s emerging
seapower” … Because of the threat of Sir Francis Drake, King Phillip II of
Spain approved three projects to strengthen the fortification of Old San
Juan in 1589. The three projects were: 1) a fort at El Morro; 2) a sea-tosea
wall from La Fortaleza to the Atlantic shore; and 3) the sinking of a
hulk to block the channel at El Boquerón Inlet … With the construction
of El Morro, visiting Captain Pedro de Salazar wrote to the Spanish crown,
“there is no longer town talk of running to the hills when corsairs come.
In fact, because corsairs sightings have increased, Puerto Ricans from the
hills crowd the streets of San Juan, seeking protection in the new citadel.
When I first came here I couldn’t find a man in town.” …
Dealing with disputes in more orderly ways, Micah J. Carmody, David
Jiang and Trisha S. Apland were all reappointed as members of the Civil
Resolution Tribunal for terms ending April 2027.