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CHAPTER IX. 



THE JURIDICAL CONTROVERSIES. 



THE great juridical controversies respecting mare liberum and 

 mare clausum the sea open to all, or that under the dominion 

 of a particular Power which enlivened the international 

 politics of the seventeenth century, reached their highest pitch 

 in the reign of Charles I., and may be conveniently considered 

 here. The writers who touched upon the question in the pre- 

 vious century took it for granted that the seas were capable of 

 appropriation, and that they were almost wholly under the 

 dominion of one Power or another. It is true that now and 

 again a slender voice was raised in protest, on abstract legal 

 grounds, against the exclusive maritime sovereignty arrogated 

 by Venice, Portugal, or Spain. Queen Elizabeth too, as we have 

 seen, not only protested against these claims in certain cases, 

 but actively opposed them. Her action, however, pertained 

 rather to the sphere of diplomacy and politics than to legal 

 controversy; and the protests of the few jurists alluded to- 

 were too feeble to have practical effect on the course of events 

 or on the prevalent opinion. 



It is noteworthy that the birth of modern international law 

 was associated with the origin of these juridical controversies 

 as to the freedom of the sea. 1 It was the appearance of Mare 

 Liberum in 1609 that heralded the dawn of the new epoch. 

 The little book of Grotius was at once a reasoned appeal for 

 the freedom of the seas in the general interest of mankind, and 

 the source from which the principles of the Law of Nations 

 have come. The main reasons why the controversy broke out at 



1 Maine, International Law, 13, 75. Phillimore, Commentaries upon International 

 Law, I. xxi. Wheaton, History of the Law of Nations, 54. 



