INTRODUCTION cxH 



safe to assume the negotiators of the Convention of 1818 were familiar 

 and by a distinguished German publicist whose work appeared in 1819, 

 a year after the negotiation of the -convention. Thus Vattel, writing 

 in 1758, and whose book has been the companion and guide of diploma- 

 tists since its publication, said: 



"All we have said of the parts of the sea near the coast may be said more par- 

 ticularly, and with much greater reason, of the roads, bays, and straights, as still more 

 capable of being occupied, and of greater importance to the safety of the country. 

 But I speak of the bays and streights of small extent; and not of those great parts of 

 the sea to which these names are sometimes given, as Hudson's Bay and the Streights 

 of Magellan, over which the empire cannot extend, and still less a right of property. 

 A bay whose entrance may be defended, may be possessed and reildered subject to 

 the laws of the sovereign. . . ." ' 



In the next place, G. F. de Martens, who, with Vattel, is regarded 

 as one of the founders of international law, says in his Law of Nations, 

 pubUshed in 1788 and translated by William Cobbett in 1795: 



"What has been said of lakes and rivers, holds good also with respect to straits, 

 which are not in general wider than the great rivers " and lakes. So also all those 

 parts of the sea which are near land, may be looked on as lawfully acquired, and main- 

 tained as the property, and under the dominion of, the nation who is master of the 

 coast. 



"A custom, generally acknowledged, extends the authority of the possessor on 

 the coast to a common shot from the shore." • 



Finally, Kliiber says, in his Droit des Gens, published in 1819: 



"Within the maritime territory of a state are included those maritime districts 

 or regions susceptible of exclusive possession, over which the state has acquired (by 

 occupation or convention) , and retained sovereignty. To these districts belong: . . . 

 Those parts of the ocean which extend into the continental territory of a state, if they 

 can be commanded by cannon from the two shores, or the entrance of which may be 

 forbidden to vessels; that is gulfs, bays, and creeks." * 



It is thus seen that the most authoritative writers on international 

 law before the year 1818 (for Grotius, Bynkershoek, Vattel, and de 

 Martens are regarded as among the founders of international law) based 

 the jurisdiction over portions of the sea upon the power of effective con- 

 trol; that is to say, small bodies of water adjacent to or extending within 

 the coast, whose entrance could be commanded by cannon. It is fair to 

 presume that the negotiators of the Convention of 1818 had in mind 



• Vattel's Droit des Gens, Liv. I, ch. XXIII, p. 251. (English Edition of 1760 quoted in 

 Oral Argument, Vol. I, p. 72g.) 



* " I mean by great rivers such as those the middle of which may be reached by 

 cannon shot, fired from the shore." (De Marten's note.) 



' Martens' Law of Nations, Cobbett's translation (First English Edition, 1802), p. 160. 



^ Droit des Gens Moderne de I'Europe, Vol. I, sec. 130, pp. 216-217. 



