Territorial sea

“ China's territorial sea along the mainland and its coastal islands takes as its baseline the line composed of the straight lines connecting basepoints on the mainland coast and on the outermost of the coastal islands; the water area extending twelve nautical miles outward from this baseline is China's territorial sea. ”

“ Correcting Executive Orders Nos. 8680, 8682, and 8683 of February 14, 1941, Establishing Certain Naval Defensive Sea Areas and Naval Airspace Reservations
The phrase "the territorial waters between the extreme high-water marks in the three-mile marine boundaries" occurring in the first paragraph of Executive Orders Nos. 8680, 8682, and 8683 of February 14, 1941, establishing certain naval defensive sea areas and naval airspace reservations, is hereby corrected to read "the territorial waters between the extreme high-water marks and the three-mile marine boundaries". ”

“ With the exception of these territorial waters, bays of certain dimensions and inland waters surrounded by territory of the same state, and serving only as a means of access to ports of the state by whose territory they are surrounded, and some waters allowed by immemorial usage to rank as territorial, all seas and oceans form part of the high sea. The usage of the high sea is free to all the nations of the world, subject only to such restrictions as result from respect for the equal rights of others, and to those which nations may contract with each other to observe. ”

“ It seems reasonable on many grounds that the waters lying in view between two parts of the same continuous territory should have been regarded as pertaining to that territory, and it may be noted that in early times the navigation of a vessel along a coast was conducted from headland to headland, and thus a distinction was likely to arise between the open sea lying outside a line joining the headlands, as a waterway common to all, and the sea inside the headlands as an access to the territory. ”

“ A large commerce is conducted on seas other than the ocean and the English seas, and it is equally necessary to distinguish between their open waters, and their ports and havens, and to provide for offenses on vessels navigating those waters, and for collisions between them. The term 'high seas' does not, in either case, indicate any separate and distinct body of water, but only the open waters of the sea or ocean, as distinguished from ports and havens and waters within narrow headlands on the coast. ”

“ So Chancellor Kent says: 'The 'high seas' mean the waters of the ocean without the boundary of any county, and they are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the admiralty, up to high-water mark when the tide is full. The 'open ocean, which washes the seacoast,' is used in contradistinction to arms of the sea inclosed within the fauces terrae, or narrow headlands and promontories ”

“ The whole coast is intersected by innumerable rivers, with branches pouring into them from every quarter, and communicating with each other by narrow, circuitous and very numerous creeks, bordered on each side with impenetrable thickets of mangroves. In these creeks, almost concealed by the trees, the vessels lie, and often elude the strictest search. But when they have taken on board their living cargo, and are getting out to sea, the British are very apt to seize them, except, alas! when they are protected by the banner of the United States. ”

“ He concludes his famous book in the following words: “It is certainly true, according to the mass of evidence set forth above, that the very shores or ports of the neighbouring sovereigns on the other side of the sea are the bounds of the maritime dominion of Britain, to the southwards and eastwards; but in the open and vast ocean to the north and west they are to be placed at the farthest extent of the most spacious seas which are possessed by the English, Scots, and Irish.” ”

“ It has been suggested that these great lakes are no more 'inland' than the close and narrow seas, like the Baltic and the Mediterranean, and that the navigation of those seas is never termed 'inland navigation.'
But the analogy does not hold. The very term 'inland' implies remote from the sea or tide water, and while the lakes are great like close seas, they are still remote from tide water, and therefore inland ”

“ Dominion over maritime territory is not subject to any limitation. Thus any strait through which the right of passage of foreign vessels can be forbidden (as the Solent or the Inland Sea of Japan) , or bays so land-locked that they cannot be held to form part of any ocean-highway, are maritime territory. ”

“ ART I. It is agreed, that, in any part of the Great Ocean, commonly called the Pacific Ocean or South Sea, the respective citizens or subjects of the high contracting powers shall be neither disturbed nor restrained either in navigation, or in fishing, or in the power of resorting to the coasts upon points which may not already have been occupied, for the purpose of trading with the natives, saving always the restrictions and conditions determined by the following articles. ”

“ For practical results, let us apply at once to the United States of to-day. The United States has a long ocean frontier, broken at Mexico by the interposition of land, as the French maritime frontier is broken at the Pyrenees; yet the coast lines, like the French, possess a certain maritime continuity, in that ships can pass from end to end by sea. In such cases, it may be said without exaggeration that an ocean frontier is continuous. At present, the United States has one frontier which is strictly continuous, by land as by water, from the coast of Maine to the Rio Grande. ”

“ When we take into view the extensive sea coast of the United States, the magnificent lakes, or inland seas, which form a considerable part of their northern frontier, the abundance of their materials for ship building, and the genius of their population for maritime enterprise, it is not easy to resist the conviction that this bulwark of defence will, at no very distant period, attain a size and strength sufficient to ensure the safety of the nation and the respect of the world. ”

“ We have now three great maritime fronts—on the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific; making, in the whole, an extent of sea-coast exceeding 5,000 miles. This is the extent of the sea-coast of the United States, not including bays, sounds, and small irregularities of the main shore, and of the sea islands. If these be included, the length of the shore line of coast, as estimated by the superintendent of the Coast Survey, in his report, would be 33,063 miles. ”

“ If the mariner knows his course, he may find deep water in most of the channels from the outer sea into these inner waters, on which the people of the South will greatly depend for any coasting trade, and supplies coastwise, they may require, as well as for the safe retreat of their privateers. ”

“ To crown the whole, where can a country be pointed out which possesses such an extent of internal navigation? A chain of river navigation and navigable inland seas, which, with the canals recently constructed, gives to the countries bordering on them all the advantages of an extended sea-coast, with a greatly diminished risk of loss from shipwreck! ”

“ If a sailor wished to navigate the Mediterranean and its adjacent waters, if he planned to sail up the coast of Europe to the British Isles and on into the Baltic, or to pass down the Atlantic coast of Africa to Cape Nun, he might rely on the maps and charts which the Italian geographers could furnish him. Or if he launched his galleys on the Red Sea he might use their guidance down the east coast of Africa to the equator. ”

“ It is clear that a distinction was drawn between coasts and bays—a distinction which is now and always has been recognised in international law, which is made in the North Sea and other fishery conventions of recent times, and is claimed by the United States with regard to their own coasts.1155 If no such 623 distinction between coast and bays was meant in the clause of the treaty of 1818, then the words “bays, creeks, and harbours” are without meaning and superfluous, a construction which is contrary to the rule which requires that effect be given to every word in a contract or treaty. ”

“ The metallic stores of the earth, the vegetable and animal kingdoms were not transferred to any extent from place to place; the sea brought nothing from lands remotely foreign but drift-sand, cocoa-nuts, floating wood, ice masses, and seaweed, swept by the great currents from shore to shore. But now the seas are no barriers; they do not separate the continents but bind them together, and unite the destinies of nations in the closest manner. The great improvements in ocean navigation have entirely changed the relations of the entire globe. ”

“ To-day, however, it is believed that our principal ports and harbors are safe from any attack from the sea, even if our navy were driven from the ocean. The defences on the great lakes are comparatively weak, as our treaties with Great Britain prevent either country from maintaining more than a few small vessels upon these waters. ”

“ As an international dividing line the one-league limit seldom, if ever, becomes important, since the nice adjustment of the width of an arm of the sea necessary for such a purpose rarely occurs. When an extension of the ocean's waters intervening between two nations is less than two marine leagues wide the boundary between them commonly follows its medial line, and has all the essential features of a water boundary, described below. ”

“ That the inhabitants and subjects of the United Provinces may, with their ships and vessels, furnished as merchantmen, freely use their navigation, sail, pass and repass in the seas of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Isles within the same, (commonly called the British Seas) without any wrong or injury to be offered to them, by the ships or people of this Commonwealth, but on the contrary shall be treated with all love and friendly offices ”

“ We must then set to work to collect provisions. After that, I tell you what we must do: we must establish a lookout place on the high point at the south side of our harbour, from whence we can obtain a wide range over the ocean, and signal to any vessel which may heave in sight. There is every reason to hope that one may come near us some day or other; and we have a much better chance of getting off from an outlying island, like this one, than we should have enjoyed had we landed an the mainland, or on any dangerous cluster surrounded by reefs. ”

“ In countries like Norway, France, Spain, Japan, Korea and Chile, peripheral location predominates, and therefore confers upon them at once the security and commercial accessibility which result from contact with the sea. Other countries, like Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary, chiefly central in location, have the strategic and even the commercial value of their coasts reduced by the long, tortuous course which connects them with the open ocean. ”

“ An indented coast with numerous havens for the shelter of vessels fosters the interests of navigation, including sea fisheries, invites commerce from other lands, and stimulates its inhabitants to explore and travel. A diversity of industries is thus favoured and the people adjacent to an indented coast with good harbours tend to become more progressive and more cosmopolitan than if intercourse with other communities is confined to overland routes. ”

“ In the Americas, we find the native races compassing a wide maritime field only in the Arctic, where the fragmentary character of the continent breaks up the ocean into Hudson's Bay, Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, Gulf of Boothia, Melville Sound and Bering Sea; and in the American Mediterranean of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The excellent seamanship developed in the archipelagoes of southern Alaska and Chile remained abortive for maritime expansion, despite a paucity of local resources and the spur of hunger, owing to the lack of a marginal sea ”

“ It is large enough to contain 500 sail of Ships. The greatest part of it is Land-lock'd, so that it is safe, and cannot be toucht by any Wind that can blow the Harbour, and the Sea makes the Land that lies betwixt them a Peninsula. ”

“ But every State may construct such artificial formations as far into the sea beyond the low-water mark as it likes, and thereby gain considerably in land and also in territory, since the extent of the at least three miles wide maritime belt is now to be measured from the extended shore. ”

“ The North is thoroughly maritime, and in the end must possess a solid and permanent supremacy on the sea. The men of Cape Cod, the fishermen of Cape Ann, and the hardy sailors who swarm from the hundred islands and bays of Maine, are not to be driven from their own element by the proud planters of the South. Naval habits and naval strength go hand in hand. And in estimating the resources of any power, the first question is, Has she sailors,—not men of the land, but men of the sea? ”

“ The Pacific is for the most part rimmed by mountains, discharging into the ocean only mad torrents or rapid-broken streams. The Atlantic, bordered by gently sloping plains of wide extent, receives rivers that for the most part pursue a long and leisurely course to the sea. Therefore, the commercial and cultural influences of the Atlantic extend from the Rockies and Andes almost to the heart of Russia, and by the Nile highway they even invade the seclusion of Africa. Through the long reach of its rivers, therefore, the Atlantic commands a land area twice as great as that of the Pacific ”

“ The distinctive value of the sea is that it promotes many-sided relations as opposed to the one-sided relation of the land. France on her eastern frontier comes into contact with people of kindred stock, living under similar conditions of climate and soil to her own; on her maritime border she is open to intermittent intercourse with all continents and climes and races of the world. To this sea border must be ascribed the share that France has taken in the history of North and South America, the West Indies, North and Equatorial Africa, India, China and the South Seas. ”