RIGHT TO PROTECT INTERESTS AND INDUSTRY. 143 



Says Chancellor Kent (1 Commentaries, 27): 



Every vessel in time of peace has a right to consult its own safety 

 and convenience, and to pursue its own course and business without 

 being disturbed, when it does not violate the rights of others. 



The freedom of the high seas for the inoffensive navigation of all 

 nations is firmly established. (Amphlett, J., Queen v. Kehn, 2 Law 

 Sep. Exeh. Div., p. 119.) 



Nor was the right of self-defense on the sea ever yielded up or relin- 

 quished by any nation. On the contrary, in every successive instance 

 in the progress of civilization and the advance of commerce, in which 

 restrictions upon the freedom of the sea were found necessary to the 

 protection of any material interest or right, general or special, such 

 restrictions were at once asserted, were recognized by general assent, 

 and became incorporated into the growth of that system of rules and 

 usages known as international law. Some of them will be more par- 

 ticularly adverted to hereafter. The safety of states aud the protection 

 of their commercial interests were not sacrificed to the idea of the 

 freedom of the sea. That freedom was conceded for the purposes of 

 such protection, and as affording its best security. 



There are no arbitrary restrictions imposed in modern times upon 

 the freedom of the sea. Neither are there any arbitrary rights there. 

 There, as elsewhere, liberty has two conditions; submission to just 

 principles of law, and due regard for the rights of others. And these 

 conditions are enforced by the injured party, because they can be en- 

 forced in no other way. 1 



1 "Since, then, a nation is obliged to preserve itself, it lias a right to everything 

 necessary for its preservation, for the law of nature gives us a right to everything 

 without which we can not fulfill our obligations. 



"A nation or state has a right to everything that can help to ward off imminent 

 danger and to keep at a distance whatever is capable of causing its ruin, and that 

 from the very same reasons that establish its right to things necessary to its preser- 

 vation." (Vattel, sees. 18, 19.) 



"The right of self-defense is, accordingly, a primary right of nations, and it may 

 be exercised, either by way of resistance to an immediate assault or by way of pre- 

 caution against threatened aggression. The indefeasible right of every nation to 

 provide for its own defense is classed by Vattel among its perfect rights." (Twiss 

 Int. Law, part I, sec. 12.) 



"The right of self-preservation is the first law of nations, as it is of individuals." 

 "For international law considers the right of self-preservation as prior 

 and paramount to that of territorial inviolability." (Phillimore, Int. Law, chap. 10, 

 sees. Ill, 114.) 



"In the last resort almost the whole of the duties of states are subordinated to 

 the right of self-protection. Where law affords inadequate protection to the indi- 

 vidual, he must be permitted, if his existence is in question, to protect himself by 

 whatever means may be necessary. * * * There are, however, circumstances 

 falling short of occasions upon which existence is immediately in question, in which, 



