782
Opinion of the Court
to the Compact in 1834 would hardly have wanted to divide the Island between New York and New Jersey, since any such division would frustrate one of the driving purposes of the Compact, of giving New York control over navigation and commerce in the harbor.4
The arguments are unavailing. To begin with, the absence of any description of the Island in metes and bounds is highly dubious support for any inference beyond the obvi-4 We note that New York does not claim that the recognition in Article Third of its "exclusive jurisdiction" over the submerged lands (which have been filled in part at the Island) includes an element of "police power" to regulate historic preservation, land use, and zoning, as New York's amici argue. See Brief for National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States and Municipal Art Society of New York as Amici Curiae 26, n. 12; Brief for New York Landmarks Conservancy, Preservation League of New York State, and Historic Districts Council as Amici Curiae 17-27. Although we left this very issue open in Central R. Co. of N. J. v. Jersey City, 209 U. S. 473, 479 (1908), counsel for New York said at oral argument that the grant in Article Third of "exclusive jurisdiction" over the submerged lands and waters between the States "is in the nature of police power, over navigation and commerce in the harbor." Tr. of Oral Arg. 34. New York's counsel argued that when the submerged lands around the Island were filled, New York continued to have jurisdiction over these lands when "used as anchorage, used for docking, used as storage areas, used for lighthouses . . . ." Id., at 35. New York does not argue that Article Third gave New York the authority to regulate anything but commerce and navigation; indeed, counsel for New York said at oral argument that "this case isn't about Article [Third]," id., at 36, and conceded that if it lost its Article Second argument and New Jersey was declared sovereign over the filled land, New Jersey law would apply to that area of the island, id., at 46. Both the New York and New Jersey state courts have also concluded that New York's "exclusive jurisdiction" over the harbor concerns only power to regulate commerce and navigation. See Kowalskie v. Merchants & Miners Transp. Co., 76 N. Y. S. 2d 699, 700-701 (Sup. Ct. 1947); In re Gutkowski's Estate, 135 N. J. Eq. 93, 102- 103, 33 A. 2d 361, 365-366 (Prerog. 1943). While we are not bound by state courts' resolution of interstate boundary disputes, Georgia v. South Carolina, 497 U. S. 376, 392 (1990); Durfee v. Duke, 375 U. S. 106, 115-116 (1963), we have no occasion to interpret the terms of the Compact more broadly than the parties who signed it.
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