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''State of Alabama v. State of Georgia'', 64 U.S. 505 (1860), is a 9-to-0 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States which held that the true border between the states of Alabama and Georgia was the average water mark on the western bank of the Chattahoochee River. In coming to its conclusion, the Court defined what constituted the bed and bank of a river.〔Wisdom, ''The Law of Rivers and Watercourses,'' 1962, p. 9.〕〔Kalinoe, ''Water Law and Customary Water Rights in Papua New Guinea,'' 1999, p. 27-28.〕 The case has had international repercussions as well. The Supreme Court's definition was adopted by courts in the United Kingdom in the case ''Hindson v. Ashby'' (1896) 65 LJ Ch. 515, 2 Ch. 27.〔 ==Background== In 1629, during European colonization of the Americas, Charles I of England granted Sir Robert Heath a charter giving him title to Native American-occupied land from the northern boundary of what is modern-day Florida north to Albemarle Sound (31st latitude), extending from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Pacific Ocean.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 840.〕 In 1663, Charles II of England revoked the Heath charter and issued a new charter to eight noblemen (the "Lords and Proprietors").〔 In 1665, this charter was amended to extend the land grant northward roughly to the current border of North Carolina and Virginia.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 840-841.〕 In 1729, the Proprietors were forced to turn their charters over to George II of Great Britain, and North Carolina separated from South Carolina.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 841.〕 In 1732, George II granted James Oglethorpe and other settlers a charter to all South Carolina Colony land west of the Savannah River.〔Channing, ''A Students' History of the United States,'' 1898, p. 128-129.〕 However, the charter was unclear as to whether the new colony covered all of South Carolina's western border, and South Carolina continued to dispute Georgia's claim over a strip of land about wide.〔Lalor, "Territorries," in ''Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States,'' 1886, p. 915.〕 In order to help secure ratification of the Articles of Confederation, the new United States Congress passed legislation encouraging all states to give up their western claims so that new territories might be formed and transformed into states which might eventually be admitted to the union.〔Lalor, "Territorries," in ''Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States,'' 1886, p. 916-917.〕 In August 1787, South Carolina ceded the disputed strip of land to the state of Georgia.〔Lalor, "Territorries," in ''Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States,'' 1886, p. 917.〕 In the Compact of 1802, Georgia ceded its sparsely settled western lands beyond the Chattahoochee River to the United States in exchange for a guarantee that the federal government would extinguish all Native American claims to land within the state's borders.〔Lalor, "Territorries," in ''Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States,'' 1886, p. 391.〕〔Sturgis, ''Presidents From Washington Through Monroe: 1789–1825: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents,'' 2002, p. 109.〕 The United States made good on its promise, removing the Cherokee nation to reservations in the new Mississippi Territory (a process which would not end until the completion of the Trail of Tears forcible removals in 1838).〔 The Compact of 1802 specified that Georgia's western boundary would be as follows:〔''State of Alabama v. State of Georgia'', 64 U.S. 505.〕 :West of a line beginning on the western bank of the Chattahoochee River where the same crosses the boundary between the United States and Spain, running up the said river and along the western bank thereof. In 1817, what is now the modern state of Mississippi was created from the western half of the Mississippi Territory, the remaining territory renamed the Alabama Territory.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 9.〕 The territory became the modern state of Alabama in 1819.〔Chiorazzi and Most, ''Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide, Including New York City and the District of Columbia,'' 2006, p. 14-16.〕 The state of Alabama entered into a dispute with the state of Georgia over the specific meaning of the Compact of 1802. Alabama argued that the contour of the land on the western bank of the Chattahoochee River was sometimes high bluffs and sometimes low, flat floodplains, and that the high-water mark sometimes marched as much as a half-mile inland to the west.〔''State of Alabama v. State of Georgia'', 64 U.S. 505, 506–507.〕 Georgia answered that it did indeed claim these lands as its own, and that the Compact of 1802 did not cover the northernmost part of the border (which Georgia claimed it had obtained directly from the state of South Carolina in 1787 without first transferring title to the United States).〔''State of Alabama v. State of Georgia'', 64 U.S. 505, 509–510.〕 The State of Alabama submitted its case to the Supreme Court in December 1855.〔''State of Alabama v. State of Georgia'', 64 U.S. 505, 506.〕 The State of Georgia submitted its reply in December 1858.〔''State of Alabama v. State of Georgia'', 64 U.S. 505, 508.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alabama v. 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