THE 



RELATIONS OF THE STATE 



WITH 



FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



PUBLIC rights, with their correlative duties, are those 

 which establish a relation between the constituted autho- 

 rities of the State on the one hand, and the rest of the 

 individual members of the community on the other ; and 

 these rights become the subject of legislation less to 

 protect directly private interests than to promote the 

 social development of the realm at large. 



The use of sea fisheries falls beneath this class of rights. 

 No one individual has an exclusive property in the sea, 

 except in " oyster beds, &c." (which see, subsequently, 

 herein) ; it is common to all the subjects equally of the 

 state which borders it ; and further than this, when once 

 the three-mile limit of the mare clausum has been passed, 

 its enjoyment becomes an international right. By modern 

 International Law the territorial sea extends for three miles 

 from the shore. It is designated the mare clausum 

 because it is " closed " to foreigners, and, except by im- 

 plied or express permission, the right to use these waters 



VOL. IX. E. 7. Q 



