560 



THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



it " so far as they can maintain their dominion over it " ; and 

 the same was true of straits and bays. 1 



Some ten years later Vattel, the pupil and follower of 

 Wolff, published a work on the law of nations, which is still 

 of authority, and in which much the same opinions as those 

 of Puffendorf and Wolff are expressed. 2 On the general 

 question of the appropriation of the sea the usual statement 

 was made ; but Vattel held that a nation might acquire 

 exclusive rights of navigation and fishery in the open sea 

 by treaties, but not by prescription, unless in virtue of the 

 consent or tacit agreement of other nations. Thus "when a 

 nation that is in possession of the navigation and fishery in 

 certain tracts of the sea claims an exclusive right of them, and 

 forbids all participation on the part of other nations, if the 

 others obey that prohibition with sufficient marks of acquiesc- 

 ence, they tacitly renounce their own right in favour of that 

 nation, and establish for her a new right, which she may 

 afterwards lawfully maintain against them, especially when it 

 is confirmed by long use." On the other hand, Vattel states 

 that the uses of the sea near the coast render it very sus- 

 ceptible of appropriation : it supplies fish, shells, pearls, and 

 other things, and with respect to all these its use is not 

 inexhaustible. A maritime people may therefore appropriate 

 and convert to their own profit "an advantage which nature 

 has placed within their reach as to enable them conveniently 

 to take possession of it, in the same mariner as they possessed 

 themselves of the dominion of the land they inhabit." Vattel 

 does not state his opinion as to the distance from the coast 

 within which the fisheries may be appropriated, but from the 

 examples he cites it is evident that the space might extend 

 considerably beyond the range of guns. " Who can doubt," he 

 asks, "that the pearl fisheries of Bahrem and Ceylon may 

 lawfully become property ? " And the same principle may 

 be applied to floating fish, which appear less liable to be 

 exhausted. If a people, he says, have on their coast a par- 

 ticular and profitable fishery of which they can become 



1 Jus Gentium, Halse Magdeburgicrc, 1749, cap. i. as. 120-132, pp. 99-107. 

 " Partes maris a gentibus, qua; idem accolunt, occupari possunt, quousque dom- 

 inium in iisdem tueri possunt." 



2 Le Droit des Gens, Liv. i. c. xxiii. 5, 279-295, 1758. 



