MODERN PRACTICE 677 



tected from the intrusion of foreign vessels, better equipped 

 and with more capital at their disposal. It is further urged 

 that the Norwegian fishermen have enjoyed the wider area 

 for many centuries. From immemorial times the right of 

 fishing has been regarded as pertaining to the land. This 

 principle was enunciated in the old provincial laws (la.ndskap- 

 slagar) of Sweden in the middle ages, and was continued in 

 the laws of the kingdom since the fourteenth and fifteenth 

 centuries. 1 It is also declared that a smaller extent of terri- 

 torial sea would interfere with the efficacy of the regulations 

 enforced for the preservation of the fisheries. A lesser boun- 

 dary would intersect the more important fishing -banks, 

 "making it impossible," to quote the words of the Minister 

 of the Interior, " for the state to regulate the fisheries on the 

 whole bank, and it would be fatal to those fisheries which are 

 necessary for the subsistence of the coast population." This 

 consideration, it is pointed out, is likely to have still more 

 weight in future, owing to the increase of the population and 

 the impoverishment of the fishing-grounds along the coast. 



The claim of Norway to the wider extent of territorial sea 

 has been as a rule respected by foreigners, probably owing in 

 the main to the fact that its coasts are but little visited by 

 foreign fishermen, but it has not remained without challenge. 

 The French Government on one occasion complained that a 

 French vessel had been prevented from fishing in the Vestfjord ; 

 but the prohibition was justified by Norway on the grounds 

 that by the law of nations the Lofoten fisheries, and especially 

 those in the Vestfjord, which was " part of the territorial sea," 

 belonged exclusively to the inhabitants, and that for centuries 

 no foreign vessels had attempted to take part in them. 2 In 

 communicating the decision to the French Government, the 

 Minister for Foreign Affairs declared that the prohibition 



1 Kleen, op. cit. ; Egerstrom, Sveriges Landtbruksfdrvaltning, 1896. p. 37. It 

 is the same in Finland, J. A. Sandman, Uebersicht u-eberdie Scefischerei Finnlands, 

 p. 145, 1906. 



- Minister of the Interior to Minister of Foreign Affairs, 28th October 1868 . . . 

 " Cela s'explique : ces peches, ayant lieu dans un golfe conside're" comme faisant 

 partie de la mer territoriale de la Norvege, ont e'te' regardees comme la proprie'te' 

 exclusive du pays. Cela ue peut certainement pas cadrer avec les principes du 

 droit international, qu'on puisse tout a coup amener des changements dans une 

 situation legale qui repose sur une reconnaissance tacite de plusieurs siecles. " 



