Law as Weapon of the Americans in their Revolution: some observations on the enforcement of law
in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

To completely understand the situation before the attack on the Gaspee, and the courses of action used by the merchants of Rhode Island,  you need to understand the colonist's successful use of law as a weapon that was preventing the enforcement of British laws and British customs taxes.  If (as there was) a solid and operational civil government in a colony, English constitutional law generally forbid the use of military law  or military forces within that colony to enforce the law that, in theory, was being applied by the local judges and juries.

Rhode Island appointed their own judges and took the legal position that just as in England, the King could not remove judges at pleasure. [Quincy Reports 302-303 (1767)]  Massachusetts took a similar position.  This allowed  the common law court system of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island to threaten the British navy and officials into ineffectiveness as long as open war was not declared.

 Two legal tools were actively used by the colonists, not by the Crown:

(1) English law applied by local judges,  and

(2) lawsuits decided by Rhode Island juries.

The law that was practiced was an American version of English common law, locally controlled and administered.  The judiciary of Massachusetts Bay and Rhode Island during the pre-revolutionary period were professionally competent and sophisticated.  The Attorneys were trained in England and in English common law. and they understood it. They knew the law, and the judges and juries were ready to adopt any legal theory or fact that would protect the Whig (American) position.

There is an extensive article on this subject at our discussion of the events preceding the 1772 attack on the Gaspee. Go there to read the legal points that lawyers appreciate, and historians have generally overlooked. These legal tools  made it impossible to effectively enforce English customs and tax law, but left the English with no effective way to counter the active American resistance. to read the article about the Rhode Island use of law as a weapon.

For a discussion of the names and jurisdiction of the Rhode Island courts, see RI Courts.