THE FISHERY CONVENTIONS 643 



probably acquire validity for the measurement of three miles 

 from it and around it, if rocks had been included in the 

 conventions, as they are now included in the recent conven- 

 tion between this country and Denmark concerning Iceland 

 and the Faroes (p. 647). The case of the Seven Stones and 

 the Eddystone is, however, on a different footing ; for while 

 the limit of exclusive fishery along the coasts of the North 

 Sea, with the exception of the part formed by Norway, was 

 settled by the convention of 1882 (so far as concerns the 

 fishermen of the signatory Powers), there appears to be some 

 obscurity as to how far the three-mile limit operates on the 

 coasts that lie outwith the boundaries of the North Sea, 

 such, for example, as the west coasts of England and Scotland 

 and the coasts of Ireland. The second article of the con- 

 vention declares, without qualification, that the three-mile 

 limit shall apply " along the whole extent of the coasts " of 

 the respective countries, it does not say merely to the North 

 Sea coasts, and the view that this stipulation operates on 

 all the coasts appears to be widely prevalent, and is expressed, 

 for example, in the Belgian law which put the convention 

 in force in that country. 1 It is, however, held by legal 

 authorities that since the special object of the convention 

 was " for the purpose of regulating the police of the fisheries 

 in the North Sea outside territorial waters," and as the 

 boundaries of the North Sea are defined "for the purpose 

 of applying the provisions of the present Convention," the 

 definition of the exclusive fishery limits applies only within 

 the area specified, and not to the other coasts of the signatory 

 Powers. 2 In the Convention Act, as in the Territorial Waters 



1 " Les articles 2 et 3 de ce contrat stipulent que les peeheurs nationaux jouiront 

 du droit exclusif de peche dans le rayon de trois milles geographiques de 60 au 

 degre de latitude, a partir de la laisse de basse mer, le long de toute 1'etendue des 

 cotes de leurs pays respectifs, ainsi que des lies et des banes qui en dependent." 

 Loi relative it, la peche maritime dans les eaux territoriales. Expose' des motifs. 

 Sess. 1890-91. 



2 The Marquis of Lothian, Secretary for Scotland, in introducing the Bill which 

 became the Herring Fishery (Scotland) Act, 1889, said : "With regard to the east 

 coast there is no very great difficulty in fixing the limits of territorial waters, 

 because between Her Majesty's Government and what I may call the riparian 

 powers of the North Sea there is a Fisheries Convention ; but on the west coast 

 there is no such convention, and therefore it has been thought desirable to attach 

 a schedule to this Bill in order to show exactly what are the waters closed against 



