MODERN PRACTICE 679 



and because the line for the closure of bays was in its opinion 

 much too small. The only treaties with foreign countries 

 in which a limit has been fixed are the one between Sweden 

 and Denmark, previously mentioned, in which the Scan- 

 dinavian boundary is maintained, and one with Mexico, in 

 1886, for customs purposes, which stipulates for three marine 

 leagues from low-water mark. 1 



It is evident that Sweden and Norway, besides claiming 

 a greater extent of territorial water than other countries, 

 also claim in particular cases to depart from the principles 

 which in general govern their own system of delimitation, 

 in order to include other waters lying off their coasts, when 

 they deem it necessary to reserve the fisheries there for their 

 own subjects. In such cases it is said to be impossible to 

 be guided by geographical rules of an absolute kind, and 

 it is urged that any general international rules on the 

 question should be sufficiently elastic to allow of similar ex- 

 ceptions elsewhere. 2 There is little doubt that the wider 

 area claimed by the Scandinavian states is, from the point 

 of view of sea fisheries, preferable to the narrower zone 

 adopted in the North Sea Convention. It will appear later, 

 that both the authorities on sea fisheries in various countries 

 and the authorities on international law agree as to the in- 

 adequacy of the three-mile limit for fishery purposes ; and it 

 is hardly probable that the Government of any other country 



1 20th August 1886. "Art. 7 ... Les deux parties contractantes conviennent 

 de consideYer comrne limites des mers territoriales de leur cotes respectives pour 

 tout ce qui se rapporte a 1'application des reglements de douane et aux mesures 

 prises pour empecher la contrebande, une distance de trois lieues marines coinptees 

 depuis de la ligne de mare"e basse." A similar customs treaty, it may be mentioned, 

 was concluded between Mexico and Great Britain on 27th November 1888, in 

 which three marine leagues was stipulated by each country " as a limit of their 

 territorial waters on their respective coasts," strictly for customs purposes. "The 

 two Contracting Parties agree to consider, as a limit of their territorial waters on 

 their respective coasts, the distance of three marine leagues reckoned from the line 

 of low- water mark. Nevertheless, this stipulation shall have no effect, excepting 

 in what may relate to the observance and application of the Custom-house Regu- 

 lations and the measures for preventing smuggling, and cannot be extended to 

 other questions of civil and criminal jurisdiction or of international maritime law " 

 (Hertslett, Treaties]. It is of interest to note, however, that the ordinary limit 

 adhered to by the British Government so rigorously in connection with fishery 

 rights, may be legitimately extended by treaty in order to protect the revenue. 



2 Auber, op. cit., 141. 



