The Sovereignty of the Sea: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial WatersFulton, Thomas Wemyss
History
The Sovereignty of the Sea: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution of the Territorial Waters
Fulton, Thomas Wemyss
Fisheries -- Great Britain; Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History; Sea-power; Territorial waters -- Great Britain -- History
As to the free use of the sea, Selden admits that to prohibit innocent
navigation would be contrary to the dictates of humanity;[668] but he
held that the permitting of such innocent navigation does not derogate
from the dominion of the sea--it is comparable to the free passage
on a road across another’s land--and it cannot always be claimed as a
right. With respect to the argument that the sea cannot be appropriated
because of its physical properties, he points to the example of
rivers and springs, which even by Roman law may be appropriated, as
well as of lakes. It is not true that the sea has no banks or limits:
it is clearly bounded by the shores; some seas, as the Caspian, are
completely enclosed, and the Mediterranean is so everywhere except
at the Straits of Gibraltar. Elsewhere there are islands, rocks,
promontories, by which boundaries may be determined; and limits may be
set in the open sea by nautical science, as in the fixing of latitude
and longitude; and that was shown by the Bull of Pope Alexander VI.,
and the hundred-mile limit of the Italians. Selden denies that the
sea is inexhaustible from promiscuous use. On the contrary he says a
sea may be made worse for him that owns it by reason of other men’s
fishing, navigation, and commerce, and less profit accrue from it, as
where pearls, corals, and other things of that kind are produced. In
such cases the abundance may be diminished by promiscuous use just as
readily as in the case of metals and suchlike on land; and the same
argument applies to all kinds of fishing.[669]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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