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CHAPTER VII.

NARROW SEAS-STRAITS.

CLXXXIX. WITH respect to Straits (détroits de mer, Meerenge, freta), where there is, as Grotius says in the passage already cited, supra et infra fretum, both the shores of which belong to one nation, these may be subject to the proprietary rights of that nation. Or if the shores belong to several nations, then, according to Puffendorf (a), the dominion is

(a) Lib. iv. c. v. s. 7: "Aquandi ergo et lavandi usus nec magni est, nec nisi littorum accolis patet, et revera inexhaustus est. Inservit quoque aqua marina sali excoquendo; sed quo usu accola littorum duntaxat gaudent. Inexhaustum quoque et innoxiæ utilitatis est mare quantum ad navigationem. (Vid. 1. xxiii. s. 1. D. de Servit. præd. rust.) Verum sunt præter hos alii quoque usus maris, qui partim non penitus sunt inexhausti: partim populo maris accolæ occasionem damni præbere possunt, ut ex re ipsius non sit, omnes maris partes cuivis promiscue patere. Prioris generis est piscatio, et collectio rerum in mari nascentium. Piscatio etsi in mari fere sit uberior, quam in fluminibus aut lacubus: patet tamen ex parte eam exhauriri posse, et accolis maris maligniorem fieri, si omnes promiscue gentes propter littora alicujus regionis velint piscari ; præsertim cum frequenter certum piscis, aut rei pretiosæ genus, puta, margaritæ, corallia, succinum, in uno tantum maris loco, eoque non valde spatioso inveniantur. Hic nihil obstat, quo minus felicitatem littoris aut vicini maris ipsorum accolæ potius, quam remotiores sibi propriam queant asserere; quibus cæteri non magis jure irasci aut invidere possunt, quam quod non omnis fert omnia tellus ; India mittit ebur, molles sua thura Sabæi. Ex posteriori genere est, quod mare regionibus maritimis vicem munimenti præbet." And at the close of s. viii. he observes-" Ex hisce patet, hodie post rem navalem ad summum perductam fastigium, præsumi, quemvis populum maritimum, et cui ullus navigandi usus, esse dominum maris littoribus suis prætensi quousque illud munimenti rationem habere censetur imprimis autem portuum, aut ubi alias commoda in terram exscensio fieri potest. (Bodinus de Rep. 1. i. c. ult. Baldi fide asserit: jure quodammodo principum omnium maris accolarum communi receptum ut sexaginta milliaribus a littore Princeps legem ad littus accedentibus

esse,

distributed amongst them, upon the same principle as it would be among the several proprietors of the banks of a river: "eorum imperia, pro latitudine terrarum, ad medium usque ejusdem pertinere intelligentur.”

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The exclusive right of the British Crown to the Bristol Channel, to the channel between Ireland and Great Britain (Mare Hibernicum, Canal de Saint-George), and to the channel between Scotland and Ireland, is uncontested. Pretty much in the same category were the three straits, forming the entrance to the Baltic, the Great and the Little Belt, and the Sound, so long as the two shores belonged to the Crown of Denmark (b); the straits of Messina (il Faro di Messina, fretum Siculum), once belonging to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies the straits leading to the Black Sea, the Dardanelles and Hellespont; the Thracian Bosphorus, belonging to the Turkish Empire (c). To narrow seas which flow between separate portions of the same kingdom, like the Danish and Turkish straits, or to other seas common to all nations, like

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dicere possit.) Sinus quoque maris regulariter pertinere ad eum populum, cujus terris iste ambitur; neque minus freta. Quod si autem diversi populi fretum, aut sinum accolant, eorum imperia pro latitudine terrarum ad medium usque ejusdem pertinere intelligentur; nisi vel per conventionem indivisim id imperium contra exteros exercere, ipsos autem promiscue inter se isto æquore uti placuerit; vel alicui soli in totum istum sinum aut fretum sit dominium quæsitum ex pacto, reliquorum concessione tacita, jure victoriæ, aut quia is prior ad id mare sedes fixerat, idque statim totum occupaverat, et contra adversi littoris accolam actus imperii exercuerat. Quo casu tamen nihilominus reliqui sinus aut freti accolæ suorum quisque portuum, tractusque littoralis domini esse intelligentur."-Puffendorf, de Jure Nat. et Gent. 1. iv. c. v. s. 8.

(b) Schlegel, Staatsrecht Dänemarks, p. 359. Vide supra, § clxxix. (c) Martens, 1. ii. c. i. s. 41, Des Mers adjacentes.

Grotius, l. ii. c. iii. s. 13, 2: "Videtur autem imperium in maris portionem eadem ratione acquiri qua imperia alia, id est, ut supra diximus, ratione personarum et ratione territorii. Ratione personarum, ut si classis, qui maritimus est exercitus, aliquo in loco maris se habeat: ratione territorii quatenus ex terra cogi possunt qui in proxima maris parte versantur, nec minus quam si in ipsa terra reperirentur."

Wheaton's Hist. pp. 577, 583, 585, 587. The peculiar law and history of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus will be found discussed later in connection with the Black Sea, § ccva.

the straits of Messina, and perhaps the St. George's Channel, the doctrine of innocent use is, according to Vattel, strictly applicable (d). How far this doctrine is sound to the extent to which it is carried by this jurist has been already considered in the matter of Rivers.

In 1602, Queen Elizabeth sent a special embassy to Denmark, having for its object the general adjustment of the relations between the two countries.

In the instructions given to the ambassadors, the principles of International Law, with respect to the subjects treated of in this chapter, are laid down with the perspicuity and precision which might be expected from the learning and ability, both of the monarch and her counsellors:

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"And you shall further declare that the Lawe of Nations. "alloweth of fishing in the sea everywhere; as also of using ports and coasts of princes in amitie for traffique and "avoidinge danger of tempests; so that if our men be barred "thereof, it should be by some contract. We acknowledge none of that nature; but rather, of conformity with the "Lawe of Nations in these respects, as declaring the same "for the removing of all clayme and doubt; so that it is

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(d) Vattel, des Détroits en particulier, 1. i. c. xxiii. s. 293: “Il faut remarquer en particulier, à l'égard des détroits, que quand ils servent à la communication de deux mers dont la navigation est commune à toutes les nations, ou à plusieurs, celle qui possède le détroit ne peut y refuser passage aux autres, pourvu que ce passage soit innocent et sans danger pour elle. En le refusant sans juste raison, elle priverait cette nation d'un avantage qui leur est accordé par la nature: et encore un coup, le droit d'un tel passage est un reste de la communion primitive. Seulement le soin de sa propre sûreté autorise le maître du détroit à user de certaines précautions, à exiger des formalités, établies d'ordinaire par la coutume des nations. Il est encore fondé à lever un droit modique sur les vaisseaux qui passent, soit pour l'incommodité qu'ils lui causent en l'obligeant d'être sur ses gardes, soit pour la sûreté qu'il leur procure en les protégeant contre leurs ennemis, en éloignant les pirates, et en se chargeant d'entretenir des fanaux, des balises et autres choses nécessaires au salut des navigateurs. C'est ainsi que le roi de Danemark exige un péage au détroit du Sund. Pareils droits doivent être fondés sur les mêmes raisons et soumis aux mêmes règles que les péages établis sur terre, ou sur une rivière."

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"manifest, by denying of this Fishing, and much more, for "spoyling our subjects for this respect, we have been injured against the Lawe of Nations, expresslie declared by con"tract, as in the aforesaid Treaties, and the King's own "letters of '85.

"And for the asking of licence, if our predecessors "yelded thereunto, it was more than by Lawe of Nations “was due;—yelded, perhaps, upon some special consideration, "yet, growing out of use, it remained due by the Lawe of "Nations, what was otherwise due before all contract; "wherefore, by omitting licence, it cannot be concluded, in any case, that the right of Fishing, due by the Lawe of "Nations, faileth; but rather, that the omitting to require "Licence might be contrarie to the contract, yf any such "had been in force.

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“Sometime, in speech, Denmark claymeth propertie in "that Sea, as lying between Norway and Island,—both "sides in the dominions of oure loving brother the king; "supposing thereby that for the propertie of a whole sea, "it is sufficient to have the banks on both sides, as in rivers. "Whereunto you may answere, that though property of sea, "in some small distance from the coast, maie yeild some "oversight and jurisdiction, yet use not princes to forbid passage or fishing, as is well seen in our Seas of England, "and Ireland, and in the Adriaticke Sea of the Venetians, "where we in ours, and they in theirs, have propertie of "command; and yet neither we in ours, nor they in theirs, "offer to forbid fishing, much lesse passage to ships of mer"chandize; the which, by Lawe of Nations, cannot be "forbidden ordinarilie; neither is it to be allowed that "propertie of sea in whatsoever distance is consequent to "the banks, as it hapneth in small rivers. For then, by "like reason, the half of every sea should be appropriated to "the next bank, as it hapneth in small rivers, where the "banks are proper to divers men; whereby it would follow "that noe sea were common, the banks on every side being "in the propertie of one or other; wherfore there re

"maineth no colour that Denmarke may claim any propertie "in those seas, to forbid passage or fishing therein.

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"You may therefore declare that we cannot, with our dignitie, yeld that our subjects be absolutelie forbidden "those seas, ports, or coasts, for the use of fishing negotia"tion and safetie; neither did we ever yeld anie such right "to Spaine and Portugall, for the Indian Seas or Havens; "yet, yf our good brother the king, upon speciall reason, "maie desire that we yeld to some renuinge of licence, or "that some speciall place, upon some special occasion, be "reserved to his particular use, in your discretion, for amitie "sake, you may yeld thereunto; but then to define the "manner of seking licence, in such sort as it be not preju"diciall to our subjects, nor to the effect of some sufficient fishing, and to be rather caried in the subject's name, than "in ours, or the king's" (e).

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CXC. The alliances contracted between the United Provinces of the Netherlands with the city of Lübeck in 1613, with Sweden in 1614 and 1640, and with the Hanseatic towns in 1615 and 1616, were all directed against the extraordinary pretensions of the Danish Crown.

But in more modern times these pretensions, though extravagant enough, have been limited to the right of excluding foreigners, not only from all commerce with Iceland and the Danish portion of Greenland, but from fishing within fifteen miles of the coast of Iceland.

The first ordinance of the kind was put forth by Denmark on April 16, 1636, and pointed at Great Britain; in 1682, it was renewed and confirmed; again on May 30, 1691; again on May 3, 1723; and again on April 1, 1776.

With respect to Greenland, the first prohibition to fish appears to have been issued on February 16, 1691. This was pointed against the Hanseatic towns. By a Treaty concluded on August 16, 1692, the city of Hamburg obtained the right of navigation and fishing in Davis's Straits.

(e) Rymer, Fod. t. xvi. pp. 433-4.

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