692 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 





bays whose width exceeded ten miles were necessarily, by their 

 situation, placed under the sovereignty of the neighbouring 

 state, as the Bay of Cancale, the Bay of Chaleur, and the 

 Scottish Firths. 1 



The various rules concerning sovereignty and jurisdiction 

 were applied to straits whose width does not exceed twelve 

 miles, with the following modifications : (1) straits of which the 

 coasts belong to different states form part of the territorial sea 

 of the bordering states, which exercise their sovereignty there 

 up to the middle line; (2) straits whose coasts belong to the 

 same state, and which are indispensable for maritime communi- 

 cation between two or several states other than the bordering 

 state, always form part of the territorial sea of the bordering 

 state, and they cannot be closed; (3) in straits whose coasts 

 belong to the same state, the sea is territorial even though the 

 distance between the coasts is greater than twelve miles, if at 

 each entrance of the strait this distance is not exceeded; 

 (4) straits which serve as a passage from one free sea to 

 another free sea can never be closed. The rules were adopted 

 by the Institut in 1894, and by the International Law Associa- 

 tion, with slight amendments, in the following year, when 

 Sir Richard Webster (now Lord Alverstone, the Lord Chief 

 Justice of England) was in the chair. 2 The rules as finally 

 adopted in London are given in Appendix O. 



" II en est ainsi pour les firths e"cossais. . . . Toutes ces bales sont conside're'es 

 comme etant sous la domination exclusive de 1'Etat riverain." Annuaire, 23. 



2 Annuaire de I' Institut de Droit International, x., xi., xii., xiii. Reports, Inter- 

 national Law Association, xv., xvi. , xvii. 







