两术语均指与海洋相关事项的法院。区别在于admiralty court主要是对有关海事的合同、侵权、伤害和犯罪行使管辖权的法院，故其为“海事法院”，

也称为admiralty或maritime court[1]。值得注意的是在英国，尽管admiralty有“海军部”或 “与海军相关”的含义[2],但admiralty court却决非是

“海军法院”或“海军军事法庭”[3]，而是地道的“海事法院”，尽管在 1340年初建时，“最初看起来设置这些法庭的目的是预防和惩罚 海盗行为”，

并“是海军大臣助理主审的法院”w。事实上， “海军军事法院或法庭”应该是naval martial-court,其是实施管 辖海军的法律规则（naval law)的法院（庭）[5]。

相比之下，术语naval court中尽管也有naval —词，但其却应是“海事事故法庭”（与军事法庭无关，至于naval一词，大概与先前英国的船舶管理均属于准军事化

规定有关），此种法庭由国外停泊的船舶 的船长或使馆官员组成，专门负责处理船主或货主（owner of ship or cargo)提出的紧急调查申诉或船舶被遗弃、沉没、灭失 等意外事故案件[6]。

 

[1] "A court that exercises jurisdiction over all maritime contracts，torts，injuries，or offenses.” Cf. Bryan A. Gamer, Black’s Law Dictionary, 7 th edition, at p. 47, West Group (1999).

[2] "Brit. the executive department or officers having jurisdiction over naval affairs generally" ; “ Of or belonging to British naval affaire or officials. B Cf. Philip Babcock Grove, Ph. D. , Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Una¬bridged ,at p. 28, G & C Merriam Co. (1976).

[3] "参见《英汉法律词典》编写组编：《英汉法律词典》，法律出版社1985年 版，第29页。

[4] "[英]参见戴维M.沃克编：《牛津法律大辞典》，光明曰报出版社1989年 版，第22页。

[5] "Id. at p. 632.

[6] "Id. at p. 632. “Naval court：any officer who commands a ship belonging to Her Majesty on any foreign station or any consular officer may hold such a court when a complaint which requires immediate investigation arises，when the owner*s interest in any Canadian ship or cargo seems to require it or when a Canadian ship is abandoned, wrecked or lost. " Cf. R. M. Fernandes & C. Burke, The Annotated Canada Shipping Act, at p. 213, Toronto, But- terwoiths (1988).