693 



CHAPTER V. 



THE INADEQUACY OF THE THREE-MILE LIMIT FOR 

 FISHERY REGULATIONS. 



THE recommendation of the International Law Association 

 and of the French Institute that the territorial waters should 

 be extended to six miles from the shore, or double the width 

 usually enforced, was avowedly made, as we have seen, chiefly 

 in the interests of the sea fisheries ; and it may be presumed 

 from the opinions of the majority of accredited writers on the 

 law of nations, as reviewed in these pages, that it is open to 

 any Power so to extend its territorial sea, except in so far as 

 such extension may be opposed to the provisions of treaties 

 with any other Power or Powers. It is undoubtedly the case 

 that in by far the greater number of instances in which the 

 limits of territorial waters, or the rights of the bordering state 

 in the adjacent sea, have been disputed, or have come under 

 discussion, between one nation and another, it was the right 

 of fishery that was at issue. From the reign of James I. this 

 has been the case, and it has been exhibited on all coasts, and 

 in almost all countries. How replete our history is with such 

 disputes may be gathered from foregoing chapters, while 

 nearly all recent international treaties in which limits in the 

 neighbouring sea are dealt with have been concerned with 

 fishery questions. The numerous treaties and agreements 

 with the United States and France respecting the vexed rights 

 of fishing on the coasts of British North America, the North 

 Sea conventions in Europe, and the various other agreements 

 between European Powers, as between Spain and Portugal, 

 Austria and Italy, Denmark and Sweden, Denmark and 

 Germany, Great Britain and France, Belgium and Germany, 



