“It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.”

i like it

There is an obvious difference between Maritime law and the Law of the Land or, Common Law.

Great! but I think today it is the other way round...

Marvelous insight shown by this allegory (don't be fooled into taking all he says literally, anymore than the classic collections of stories and fairy tales are to be taken literally).

"Civilization" may end at the water line but certainly all of the crap it produces does not, and has an effect on the largest and smallest of the food chain.

Interesting. I recommend digging further into how the American justice system has devolved from Common Law to Admiralty/Maritime Law. Note the gold fringed flag in today's court rooms indicating that it is an Admiralty-Maritime jurisdiction. Sad, very sad -- piece by piece the American Republic has been corrupted -- the justice system is a complete sham.

With out the contexts it was taken from it means little to me.