4 8 THE FISHERIES OF THE ADRIATIC, 



minds of the inhabitants of the coast, that when Austria first came into 

 possession of the coast it was thought impolitic to meddle with it. 



Even the Regolamento of Dandolo, the Provveditore of Dalmatia under 

 the French in 1808, did not attempt to interfere with rights based upon 

 usage, but only regulated the exercise of those rights, and thus we find 

 these feudal principles retained, until a law of 1835 attempted to deal with 

 them. 



By virtue of this law the deep-sea fisheries were declared free, the rights 

 of fishing within the territorial boundary — i.e., within one mile of the coast- 

 being reserved to the inhabitants of seaboard, and the ancient rights per- 

 taining to the barons and the Communes were thus virtually abolished. 



But the new law gave rise to so much litigation, that an explanatory 

 notification had to be issued two years later, to the effect that fishing rights 

 based upon private civil contracts, or derived from ancient conventional cus- 

 toms, were not infringed thereby. 



Nevertheless, such rights were upheld only in exceptional cases, in 

 order to prevent needless litigation, and the rule was only intended to ease 

 the transition from the old to the new state of things introduced by the law 

 of 1835, and, later on, more fully borne out by the general law of 1848, which 

 abolished all feudal holding of landed property. 



It must, therefore, be inferred that the possession of fishing rights based 

 upon feudal principles have no longer any legal locus standi ; moreover, the 

 law does not exclude the right of transferring the fisheries to others by those 

 not choosing to exercise the rights themselves ; it is thus that many Com- 

 munes have let their fisheries to the Italian fishermen within the territorial 

 waters, thus giving rise to the protests and jealousy of the neighbouring local 

 fishermen. 1 



Beyond the general laws above cited, no special law concerning the 

 fisheries in Austria- Hungary has been passed, owing, probably, to the 

 difficulty that exists in reconciling the different interests, and at present it 



1 The treaty rights of the Italian fishermen are limited to the waters outside the territorial 

 boundary. 



