For well over two hundred years tensions have existed between the State of Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia. The core source of the dispute – the location of the boundary between those States – has generated subsidiary questions focused on navigation of, jurisdiction over, and fisheries in and along the Potomac River (“Potomac” or “River”). By compact,1 arbitration,2 and litigation,3 the States have sought resolution of these conflicts. Despite their best efforts, disputes continue to arise requiring resort to the courts. This is the most recent. This action involves the Commonwealth of Virginia’s right to construct improvements connected to the Virginia shore of the Potomac without regulation by Maryland. Virginia contends that the Compact of 1785 and the BlackJenkins Award of 1877, confirmed by the Court’s decision in Maryland v. West Virginia, 217 U.S. 577 (1910), and by the Potomac River Compact of 1958, grant it the right to make improvements along the entire length of its Potomac boundary without regulation by Maryland.
Virginia v. Maryland
