120 CASE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



for special purposes, or that there are diff'ereut bounds of that terri- 

 tory for ditfereut objects. But, as the line of territorial waters, if 

 not fixed, is dependent on the unsettled raujj,e of artillery fire, and, if 



fixed, must be by an arbitrary measure, the courts, in the earlier 

 157 cases were not strict as to standards of distance, wiiere no 



foreign ]-*owers intervened in the causes. In later times, it is 

 safe to infer that .judicial as well as political tribunals will insist on 

 one line of marine territorial jurisdiction for tlie exercise of i'orce on 

 foreign vessels, in time of peace, for all jjurjioses alike. 



PRESIDENT TYLER. 



It is an axiom of internatioual maritime law tliat such 

 action is only admissible in the case of piracy or in pnr- 

 suance of special international agreement. This principle 

 has been universally admitted by jurists, and was very 

 distinctly laid down by President Tyler in his Special Mes- 

 staterapera, si^o'e to Coiioiess, dated the 27th February, 1843, when, 

 xxxii.p.sTu. ' after acknowledging the right to detain and search a vessel 

 on snsj^icion of i)iracy, he goes on to say : 



With this single exception, no nation has, in time of peace, any 

 authority to detain the ships of another upon the high seas, on any 

 pretext whatever, outside the territorial jurisdiction. 



ARTICLE VII. 



CONSIDERATION OF REGULATIONS POSTPONED. 



Great Britain maintains, in the light of the facts and 

 arguments which have been adduced on the points included 

 in the Vlth Article of the Treaty, that her concurrence is 

 necessary to the establishment of any Regulations Avhich 

 limit or control the rights of British subjects to exercise 

 their right of the pursuit and capture of seals in the non 

 territorial waters of Behring Sea. The further consider- 

 ation of any i)roposed Regulations, and of the evidence 

 proper to be considered by the Tribunal in connection there- 

 with, must of necessity be for the present postponed. 



158 CHAPTER X. 



Recapitulation of Arfjunicnt. 



The following are the propositions of law and fact which, 

 it is maintained on behalf of Great Britain, have been 

 established in the foregoing Case: 



1. The sea now known as Behring Sea is an <)])en sea, free 

 to the vessels of all nations, and the right of all nations to 

 navigate and fish in the waters of Behring Sea, other than 

 the territorial waters thereof, is a natural right. 



2. No assertion of jurisdiction by Russia, the United 

 States, or any other nation could limit or restrict the right 

 of all nations to the free use of the open sea for luivigation 

 or hshing. 



.'{. At no time i)rior to the Treaty of the 30tli March, 1807, 

 did Russia i)0ssess any exclusive jurisdiction in tlie non- 

 territorial waters of the sea now known as Behring Sea. 



