1909.] ATLANTIC FISHERIES QUESTION. 349 



for the vessels of all nations as any part of the ocean. He says f^ 



The enclosure of a sea by the land of one and the same state does not 

 matter, provided such a navigable connection of sah water as is open to 

 vessels of all nations exists between such sea and the general body of salt 

 water, even if that navigable connection itself be part of the territory of one 

 or more riparian states. Wheras, therefore, the Dead Sea is Turkish and 

 the Aral Sea is Russian territory, the Sea of Marmora belongs to the open 

 sea, although it is surrounded by Turkish land and although the Bosphorus 

 and the Dardanelles are Turkish territorial straits, because these are now 

 open to merchantmen of all nations. 



So, too, Hudson's Bay is a part of the high seas, for the en- 

 trance to that large interior sea to the vessels of all nations is through 

 Hudson Strait that is much more than six miles wide. 



It is only within territorial waters that a state can by its legisla- 

 tion restrict vessels of other nations from doing all those things that 

 the vessels of all nations can properly do upon the high seas. What 

 are the territorial waters of each state? 



Phillimore, judge of the British High Court of Admiralty, says :"' 



The limit of territorial waters has been fixed at a marine league, because 

 that was supposed to be the utmost distance to which a cannon-shot from 

 the shore could reach. The great improvement recently effected in artillery 

 seems to make it desirable that this distance should be increased, but it must 

 be so by the general consent of nations, or by specific treaty with particular 

 states. 



The three-mile limit as the extent of the territorial waters of 

 nations along their sea front, except where a modification has been 

 made by treaty between the contracting parties, is to-day universally 

 recognized. 



With the aim of bringing about a universal change in the extent 

 of the territorial belt of waters along the sea front of nations, the 

 Institute of International Law in March, 1894, after careful con- 

 sideration and weighing the arguments pro and con, gave it as its 

 opinion that the belt of territorial waters along the coast line of each 

 nation should be extended from three to six miles from low water.*'® 



^ L. Oppenheim, " International Law," London, 1905, Vol. I., p. 307. 



"^ Sir Robert Phillimore, " Commentaries upon International Law," second 

 edition, London, 1871, Vol. I., p. 237. Phillimore was a member of Her 

 Majesty's Privy Council and judge of the High Court of Admiralty. The 

 first edition of this volume appeared in 1854. 



"* Charles Calvo, " Le Droit International," Paris, 1896, cinquieme edition. 

 Vol. VI., p. 67. 



