HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF THE TERRITORIAL SEA 555 



extended and the security of the sea became established, it was 

 felt more and more that claims to a hampering sovereignty 

 and jurisdiction were incompatible with the general welfare 

 of nations; and as the states interested in this commerce 

 had the greatest power, the assertion of a wide dominion 

 w r as gradually abandoned, surviving only in remote regions 

 or in enclosed seas, like the Baltic. 



At the beginning of the eighteenth century the question 

 of the appropriation of the sea was placed on another footing. 

 The principle of delimiting the territorial sea which is now 

 generally accepted was first expounded in 1703 by a dis- 

 tinguished publicist, Cornelius van Bynkershoek, who, like 

 Grotius, was a Dutchman, and held the office of Judge in 

 the Supreme Court of Appeal of Holland, Zealand, and West 

 Friesland. In his early work on the dominion of the sea, 1 

 and in a later treatise published in 1737, 2 he dealt with the 

 subject with much acumen. With respect to the general 

 question as to the capability of appropriation, he agreed with 

 Puffendorf rather than with Grotius. While holding that 

 the open ocean could not be w r holly brought under dominion, 

 he admitted, with Selden, not only that large parts of the sea 

 are susceptible of appropriation, but that various nations had 

 at different times enjoyed such dominion : the fluidity of the 

 sea was not a bar to its occupation, and by taking possession 

 of it the same right was acquired as by taking possession 

 of the land. But he declared there was no instance at the 

 time he wrote of any ruler possessing maritime dominion 

 of that kind, unless when the surrounding territory belonged 

 to him, and that the general freedom of the seas for naviga- 

 tion had been established both by usage and by various treaties. 

 He denied that England had the dominion of the so-called 

 British seas, mainly on the ground of the want of uninter- 

 rupted possession, pointing out that all the neighbouring 

 nations freely navigated them without paying any tribute 

 or requiring any permission. 



It was, however, with regard to the delimitation of the 

 territorial sea immediately adjacent to the coast that Bynkers- 

 hoek's teaching had its chief results. He showed how un- 



1 De Dominio Maris Dissertatio. Hagse-Batavorum, 1703. 



2 Quatstiones Juris Publici. Lugduni-Batavorum, 1737. 



