ORAL ARGUMENT OF SIR CHARLES RUSSELL, Q. C. M. P. 93 



Sir Charles Kussell. — Precisely. Mr. President I would ask you 

 to kindly allow my friend Sir Iticliard Webster to read tlie whole of 

 this, as it is one of the few documents I sliall desire to read in extenso. 



Senator Morgan. — Is that a bri^f in the case? 



Sir Charles Russell. — Yes; it is the formal pleading filed at 

 Sitka on behalf of the United States. 



Senator Morgan. — It is not a brief then ; it is a part of the case? 



Sir Richard Webster. — In the pleadings in those Courts both 

 sides tile a brief in the Court itself; it is not the same thing as a brief 

 of counsel. 



Sir Richard Webster thereupon read to the Court the following 

 verbatim copy of the brief: 



Case. 



The. information in this case is based on Section 1956 of Chapter 3 of the Revised 

 Statutes of the United States, Avhicli provides tliat "No person shall kill any otter, 

 uiiuk, marten, sable or fur-seal, or other fur-bearing animal within the limits of 

 Alaska Territory or in the waters thereof." 



The offence is charged to have been committed 130 miles north of the Island of 

 Ounalaska, and therefore in tlie main waters of that part of Behriug's Sea ceded by 

 Russia to the United States by the Treaty of 1867. The defendants demur to the 

 information on the ground. 



1. That the Court has no jurisdiction over the defendants, the alleged offence 

 having been committed beyond the limit of a marine league from the shores of 

 Alaska. 



2. That the Act under which the defendants were arrested is unconstitutional in 

 so far as it restricts the free navigation of the liehring's Sea for hsliiug and sealing 

 purjioses beyond the limits of a marine league from shore. The issue thus raised by 

 the demurrer presents squarely tlie ([uestions: 



(1) The jurisdiction of the United States over r>ehring's Sea. 



(2) The ijower of Congress to legislate concerning those waters. 



The argument. 



The fate of the second of these propositions depends largely upon that of the first, 

 for if the jurisdiction and dominion of the United States as to these waters be not 

 sustained the restrictive Acts of Congress must fall, and if our jurisdiction shall be 

 sustained small question can be made as to the power of Congress to regulate fishing 

 and sealing within our own waters. The grave question, one important to all the 

 nations of the civilized world, as well as to the United States and Great Britain, is 

 "the dominion of Behring's Sea." 



The Three Mile Limit. 



Concerning the doctrine of international law establishing what is known as the 

 marine league belt, which extends the jurisdiction of a nation into adjacent seas 

 for the distance of 1 marine league, or 3 miles from its shores, and following all the 

 indentations and sinuosities of its coast, there is at this day no room for discussion. 

 It must be accepted as the settled law of nations. It is sustained by the high- 

 est authorities, law-writers, and jurists. It has been sanctioned by the 

 832 United States since the foundation of the Government. It was affirmed by 

 Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State, as early as 1793, and has been reaffirmed by 

 his successors — Mr. Pickering, in 1796; Mr. Madison, m 1807; Mr. Webster, in 1842; 

 Mr. Buchanan, in 1849; Mr. Seward, in 1862, 1863, and 1864; Mr. Fish, in 1875; Mr. 

 Evarts, in 1879 and 1881; and Mr. Bayard, in 1886. (Wheaton's International Law, 

 vol. I, sec. 32, pp. 100 and 109.) 



Sanctioned thus by an unbroken line of precedents covering the first century of 

 our national existence, the United States would not abandon this doctrine if they 

 could; they could not if they would. 



Landlocked Seas. 



Well grounded as is this doctrine of the law of nations, it is no more firmly estab- 

 lished as a part of the international code than that otlier principle which gives to a 

 nation supremacy, jurisdiction, dominion over its own inland waters, gulfs, bays, 

 and seas. If a sea is entirely enclosed by the territories of a nation, and has no other 

 communication with the ocean than by a channel, of which that nation may take 



