180 American Fisheries Society 



are only obligatory in so far as the nations concerned regard them 

 as having moral force. International law is indeed derived originally 

 from general and abstract theory, and it is difficult to see how it 

 can have the same force and obligation as the criminal and civil 

 laws of nations. 



Germany, when she ignored her solemn treaties and violated 

 the requirements of international morality, showed how futile are 

 the claims made on behalf of international law. It fails when 

 most needed. It is merely a collection of requirements in which 

 the opinions of an indeterminate body of men are crystallized, 

 and these opinions may or may not govern the conduct of those 

 independent political societies which we call nations. If the three- 

 mile limit is an essential part of international law, it has neither 

 weight nor imperative obligation to support it. A country like 

 New Zealand, with no foreign neighbors near at hand, and not 

 bound by treaties or formal agreements with sister countries, is 

 free to establish any territorial limit which she is prepared to 

 enforce. Indeed, in some recommendations which I made to the 

 New Zealand Government five years ago, I recommended that 

 owing to her isolated situation she could be justifiably the first to 

 announce a 10-mile or 12-mile territorial limit for the benefit of her 

 sea fisheries. The principle applies, of course, to all countries, 

 except in so far as they are bound by treaties with particular 

 nations, or groups of nations. 



It is a mistake to claim that the three-mile limit is universally 

 recognized or adopted. The main ground for this opinion is based 

 on the fact that some of the most important nations in the world 

 in their treaties and conventions with one another have, at times, 

 specified three miles as a territorial coastal area. Such nations as 

 the United States, Great Britain, and France, and some of the 

 nations bordering on the North Sea, have done so, but because, in 

 certain instances, two or more nations have bound themselves 

 by such limitations, there is no reason why any country that 

 desires to do so, and is free to do so, may not claim more than three 

 miles as its territorial boundary waters. The examples already 

 given of maritime people like the Norwegians, or the Swedes, 

 who have asserted their authority over more than three miles 

 suffice. That Norway has not hesitated in her claim, is 

 proved by the fact that she recently promulgated a new law 



