204 THE AEGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



trance may be controlled by artillery or when it is naturally defended 

 by islands, banks or rocks. In all of these cases it may truly be said 

 that these indentations or bays are within the power of the state 

 which is mistress of the territory which surrounds them. This 

 state has the possession thereof ; all the reasons which we have adduced 

 with respect to roadsteads and ports may be repeated here. * * * 



The border of the sea which washes the coast of a state constitutes 

 the natural maritime limits to that state, but for the protection and 

 more effective defense of these natural limits the general custom of 

 nations in accordance with public treaties, permits imaginary lines 

 to be traced along the coast at a suitable distance following its 

 sinuosities, which may be considered as the artificial maritime 

 boundary. Every ship which finds itself inside of this line is said 

 to be in the waters of the state whose right of sovereignty and juris- 

 diction it limits. This imaginary line Pinheiro-Ferreira calls " the 

 line of respect," and within which he says with reason " the alien 

 even in the absence of force must conduct himself as if he were upon 

 the territory of the state, and undertake nothing which the govern- 

 ment of that state would have the right to pronounce as infringing 

 the ownership or security of the nation." 



The greatest range of cannon, according to the ordinary progress 

 of the art at each epoch, is therefore the best universal measure to 

 adopt. There is no question that the measurement of the distance 

 commences at the point where there is actual navigable sea. The 

 rule which Bynkershoek gives, terrae potestas finitur ubi finitur 

 armorum vis, is to-day the rule of the law of nations, and since the 

 invention of firearms this distance has ordinarily been considered as 

 three miles. 



Nevertheless, with respect to this limitation of the territorial sea, 

 two observations may be made : First, the greatest range of cannon is 

 the common standard of measurement adopted by the universal law 

 of nations, which must be observed by all in the absence of treaty; 

 but nothing would prevent certain powers from agreeing among 

 themselves by treaty, upon a different extent of the territorial sea. 

 The extension thus established would, however, be obligatory only on 

 the contracting powers, other powers remaining subject to the common 

 rule. Our opinion, moreover, is that these special treaties, while sub- 

 stituting a more definite measurement in precise figures for that of 

 the range of cannon, ought not to digress far from this latter stand- 

 ard, the danger being of opposing the principles of reason upon 

 which the special control over the territorial sea is based. 



Hautef euille : " Des Droits Et Des Devoirs des Nations Neutres en 

 Temps de Guerre Maritime" published in 1848, citing from vol. 1, 

 French edition, 1868, tit. I, ch. 3, p. 57 et seq. 



The sea is absolutely free except the waters washing the coast. 

 These waters are part of the domain of the adjacent state. The 

 reasons for this exception are : 1st. That these portions of the ocean are 

 susceptible of a continuous possession; 2nd. That the people which 

 possess them may exclude others from them ; 3rd. That in the interest 

 of its security and the preservation of the advantage derived from 

 the territorial sea, it must establish this exclusion. These causes 



