Three areas of court jurisdiction compared: Common Law, Equity Law, Admiralty Law

Common Law 

Common Law is based on God's law. Anytime someone is charged under the Common Law, there must be a damaged party. You are free under the Common Law to do anything you please, as long as you do not infringe on someone else's property. The Common Law does not allow for any government action which prevents a man from making a fool of himslef. For instance, when you cross over the state lines in most states, you will see a sign which says, "Buckle your seat belts -  It's the law". This cannot be Common Law because who would you injure if you did not buckle up? No one. This would be compelled performance. But Common Law cannot compel performance. Any violation of Common Law is a CRIMINAL ACT, and is punishable. 

Equity Law

Equity Law is law which compels performance. It compels you to perform to the exact letter of any contract that you are under. So, if you have compelled performance, there must be a contract somewhere, and you are being compelled to perform under the obligation of the contract. Now this can only be a civil action - not criminal. In Equity jurisdiction, you cannot be tried criminally, but you can be compelled to perform to the letter of a contract. If you then refuse to perform as directed by the court, you can be charged with contempt of court, which is a criminal action. Are our seatbelt laws Equity laws? No, they are not because you cannot be penalised or punished for not keeping to the letter of a contract. 

Admiralty/Maritime Law

This is civil jurisdiction of compelled performance which also has criminal penalties for not adhering to the letter of the contract, but this only applies to International Contracts. Now we can see what jurisdiction seatbelt laws (all traffic codes, etc.) are under. Whenever there is a penalty for failure to perform, (such as willful failure to file), that is Admiralty/Maritime Law and there must be a valid international contract in force. However, the courts do not want to admit that they are operating under Admiralty Law jurisdiction so they took the international law or law merchant and adopted it into our codes. It is called Statutory Jurisdiction and it is globally established under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).