ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 91 



appears in the general treaty of 1908, would put any term to the 

 provisions of the Special Agreement of 1909. 



The President: Yes. 



The Attorney- General: It seems to me that, so far as Article 

 4 is concerned, certainly not. Article 4 is not Umited by any term, 

 but is expressly agreed between the parties as relating to the future, 

 generally; so that it would not be a terminable article at all, so far 

 as affects the subject-matter of that article. 



Senator Root: Now, may it please the Tribimal, I have, in 

 a very informal way, examined the effect of the British theory pre- 

 sented here in argument upon the practical situation as it exists 

 in Newfoundland, and for that purpose have considered the nature 

 of the British right as contended for by Great Britain. 



I now ask the attention of the Tribimal to some consideration 

 of the other side of the picture — the nature of the American right, 

 as contended for by the United States, and the legal effect, as bear- 

 ing upon the practical rights of the parties, in the prosecution of 

 the industry to which the treaty relates, of the nature of the right 

 of the United States as we deem it to be. 



The first consideration which it seems to me hes at the bottom 

 of any just view of the right of the United States is that it is 

 a national right, and not a right of individuals. The treaty is a 

 treaty made between sovereign and independent nations. The 

 grant which the treaty contains is a grant to the United States. 

 There is no privity of contract or estate between Great Britain and 

 the inhabitants of the United States, or between the United States 

 and the subjects of Great Britain. 



We speak in a colloquial way about the grant of a fishing right, 

 about the treaty granting the right to fish, and about the inhabitants 

 of the United States receiving from the treaty the right to fish, but 

 it is a colloquial use of terms. Using terms with the precision that 

 is appropriate to a consideration of the legal consequences that 

 flow from their use in a formal solemn instrument Hke a treaty, we 

 must reject that very general and colloquial expression or series of 

 expressions and consider what this treaty actually does. The con- 

 tracting party with Great Britain is the United States of America, 



