NORTH ATLANTIC FISHERIES DISPUTE 21 



(b) Unless they are reasonable in themselves and fair as between 

 local fishermen and fishermen coming from the United States, and not 

 so framed as to give an advantage to the former over the latter class; 

 and 



(c) Unless their appropriateness, necessity, reasonableness, and fair- 

 ness be determined by the United States and Great Britain by common 

 accord and the United States concurs in their enforcement. 



Question I, thus submitted to the Tribunal, resolves itself into two 

 main contentions: 



1st. Wliether the right of regulating reasonably the liberties con- 

 ferred b}' the Treaty of 1818 resides in Great Britain; 



2nd. And, if such right does so exist, whether such reasonable exer- 

 cise of the right is permitted to Great Britain without the accord and 

 concurrence of the United States. 



The Treaty of 1818 contains no explicit disposition in regard to the 

 right of regulation, reasonable or otherwise ; it neither reserves that right 

 in express terms, noi- refers to it in any way. It is therefore incumbent 

 on this Tribunal to answer the two questions above indicated by inter- 

 preting the general terms of Article I of the Treaty, and more especially 

 the words 'the inhabitants of the United States shall have, for ever, in 

 common with the subjects of His Britannic Majesty, the liberty to take 

 fish of every kind.' This interpretation must be conformable to the 

 general import of the instrument, the general intention of the parties to 

 it, the subject matter of the contract, the expressions actually used and 

 the evidence submitted. 



Now in regard to the preliminary question as to whether the right 

 of reasonable regulation resides in Great Britain: 



Considering that the right to regulate the liberties conferred by the 

 Treaty of 1818 is an attribute of sovereignty, and as such must be held 

 to reside in the territorial sovereign, unless the contrary be provided; 

 and considering that one of the essential elements of sovereignty is that 

 it is to be exercised within territorial limits, and that, failing proof to the 

 contrary, the territory is coterminous with the sovereignty, it follows 

 that the burden of the assertion involved in the contention of the United 

 States (viz., that the right to regulate does not reside independently in 

 Great Britain, the territorial sovereign) must fall on the United States. 

 And for the purpose of sustaining this burden, the United Btat<;s have 

 put forward the following series of propositions, each one of which must 

 be singly considered. 



It is contended by the United States : 

 (1) That the French right of fishery under the Treaty of 1713, 

 designated also as a liberty, was never subjected to regulation 



