348 BALCH— THE AMERICAN-BRITISH tApril 22, 



Ever since the famous argument between Grotius and Selden 

 as to whether the high seas should be free to the vessels of all the 

 world or whether parts, greater or smaller as the case might happen 

 to be, of the high seas should be subject to the jurisdiction of one 

 nation, the verdict of the world has leaned more and more towards 

 the view of the famous Hollander.^* Practically all international 

 jurists are agreed now that the high seas are free and that the terri- 

 torial waters of a nation only extend to three miles from land and 

 over those bays or portions of them that are not more than six miles 

 across from shore to shore. 



The learned Belgian jurist, Mr. Justice Nys, a member of the 

 Court of Appeals of Brussels and of The Hague International Court, 

 thus sums up the question of the freedom of the high seas. He 

 says -y" 



La haute mer, la pleine mer, la mer pour employer la designation usuelle, 

 est libre. Elle n'est pas susceptible de possession et de propriete a cause de 

 sa nature phj'sique, de la mobilite et de la fluidite de ses flots, de I'etendue 

 sur laquelle devrait s'appliquer la sanction des ordres ou des prohibitions; 

 elle ne peut tomber sous le droit de police, de suprematie, d'empire d'un ou 

 de plusieurs fitats a cause de I'egalite juridique des membres de la societe 

 Internationale. 



Oppenheim who now sits as successor to Westlake, by whom he 

 was chosen, in the chair of International Law at Cambridge Univer- 

 sity, holds that many enclosed seas that are connected with the ocean 

 by passages less than six miles in width are as free to navigation 



"* Le Comte de Garden, " Traite Complet de Diplomatie," Paris, 1833, Vol. 

 I., pp. 402-404. A. G. Hefifter, " Le Droit International de I'Europe ; Qua- 

 trieme edition Frangaise, augmentee et annotee par F. Heinrich Gefifcken," 

 Berlin and Paris, 1883. F. de Martens, "Traite de Droit International," 

 traduit du Russe par Alfred Leo, Paris, 1883, Vol. I., pp. 491-494. Alphonse 

 Rivier, " Principes du Droit des Gens," Paris, 1896, Vol. I., pp. 236-237. 

 Hannis Taylor, " A Treatise on International Public Law," Chicago, 1901, pp. 

 290-294. John Westlake, " International Law," Cambridge, 1904, Part I., pp. 

 160-163. Ernest Nys, " Les Origines du Droit International," Paris and Brussels, 

 1894, pp. 379-387 ; " Le Droit International, Les Principes, les Theories, les 

 Faits," Paris and Brussels, 1905, Vol. II., pp. 135-138. L. Oppenheim, " Inter- 

 national Law," London, 1905, Vol. I., pp. 300-306. George B. Davis, " Ele- 

 ments of International Law," New York, 1908, p. 57 et seq. 



"^ Ernest Nys, " Le Droit International, Les Principes, les Theories, les 

 Faits," Paris and Brussels, 1905, Vol. II., p. 134. 



