748
Opinion of the Court
and all of Portsmouth Harbor, including the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey Island located within the harbor just south of Kittery, Maine, id., at 34.* Relying on various historical records, New Hampshire urges that "Middle of the River," as those words were used in 1740, denotes the main branch of the river, not a midchannel boundary, Brief in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss 12-16, and that New Hampshire, not Maine, exercised sole jurisdiction over shipping and military activities in Portsmouth Harbor during the decades before and after the 1740 decree, id., at 17-19, and nn. 35-38.
While disagreeing with New Hampshire's understanding of history, see Motion to Dismiss 9-14, 18-19 (compiling evidence that Maine continually exercised jurisdiction over the harbor and shipyard from the 1700's to the present day), Maine primarily contends that the 1740 decree and the 1977 consent judgment divided the Piscataqua River at the middle of the main channel of navigation—a division that places Seavey Island within Maine's jurisdiction. Those earlier proceedings, according to Maine, bar New Hampshire's complaint under principles of claim and issue preclusion as well as judicial estoppel.
We pretermit the States' competing historical claims along with their arguments on the application vel non of the res judicata doctrines commonly called claim and issue preclusion. Claim preclusion generally refers to the effect of a prior judgment in foreclosing successive litigation of the very same claim, whether or not relitigation of the claim raises the same issues as the earlier suit. Issue preclusion generally refers to the effect of a prior judgment in foreclosing successive litigation of an issue of fact or law actually
*According to New Hampshire, the Federal Government in recent years has taken steps to close portions of the shipyard and to lease its land and facilities to private developers. Complaint 34. New Hampshire and Maine assert competing claims of sovereignty over private development on shipyard lands. Ibid.
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