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
within which the bordering state had exclusive sovereign jurisdiction.
It has also been accepted by the great majority of modern publicists,
and the phrase of Bynkershoek, “terræ dominium finitur ubi finitur
armorum vis,” has become enshrined in the Law of Nations.
Later, and mainly through the action and practice of the United States
of America and Great Britain since the end of the eighteenth century,
the distance of three miles from shore was more or less formally
adopted by most maritime states as equivalent to the range of guns, and
as more definitely fixing the limits of their jurisdiction and rights
for various purposes, and, in particular, for exclusive fishery. At
the time the three-mile limit was introduced, that distance did indeed
represent the farthest range of artillery, so that the boundary was the
same in each case; and it was sufficient to secure to neutrals that
their coasts should not be violated by the operations of belligerents
carried on beyond three miles from the shore, while at the same time
it furnished a practical measure of the extent of the protection that
neutral Powers were bound to afford to the vessels of one belligerent
from attacks by the other. But all this is changed. Guns are now able
to throw shells to a distance of fifteen miles and more, and the
three-mile limit has become quite inadequate to secure the coasts
of a neutral from damage from the guns of belligerents engaged in
hostilities in the waters near their shores. The argument is not
uncommonly used that inasmuch as Great Britain is the predominant
maritime Power, it is to her advantage that the territorial waters of
all countries should be as narrow as possible. The wider the theatre
the better chance for our navy, either in engaging the battle fleets
of the enemy or in capturing his shipping. The importance of the
change in the conditions referred to above is overlooked. There has
been no great maritime war in Europe since the three-mile limit was
adopted as the equivalent of the range of guns. If and when another
maritime war unfortunately breaks out, it would be absurd to suppose
that the neutral Powers within the sphere of possible operations would
be content with a three-mile limit to safeguard the security of their
coasts. As provided for in the rules drawn up by the Institute of
International Law, their duty would be to prohibit all hostilities
within such distance of their coasts as would render them secure, and
this in turn would involve the immunity from capture within the same
space of the merchant vessels of one of the belligerents by the vessels
of the other. And thus if this country were engaged in a great maritime
war, such as occurred a century or so ago, a very considerable belt of
sea on neutral coasts would be closed to the operations of the fleet,
and the conditions of naval warfare would be profoundly changed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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