2. Since 1023 - Charter of King Cnut, which
granted to the monks of Canterbury certain
wreck rights on the British side of the “middle
of the sea” in front of Sandwich
Roman law regards the sea as commune
omnium
3.
4.
5. 1609 – Hugo
Grotius introduced
mare liberum
(Freedom of the
Sea), the sea is too
immense to be
appropriated by a
nation and thus
should be seen as
res communis
6. 1613 - Welwood, in his book An Abridgement
of all Sea-Lawes restricted the freedom of the
sea to the main sea or great ocean
1636 – John Seldon disagreed with Hugo
Grotius and introduced mare clausum, a State
has sovereignty over a certain degree of
ocean space which cannot be claimed by third
States
7. 1672 – Samuel Pufendorf introduced
sovereign rights and delimitation principles
a man has sovereignty on the earth, as well as
the sea
The sea is an increament of the land and the
sovereignty shall be vested to the State land
that touches one part of the land
8. The sovereignty of each shall be conceived to
reach into the middle of the water from every
part of their respective shore; unless either all
the States have agreed by covenant to use the
whole water promiscuously amongst
themselves”
9. where the water areas between States with
opposite coasts overlapped, the typical
approach was to apply a median line “drawing
a line in the middle of the water” to allow
both States for equal sharing unless the
States agreed otherwise
10.
11.
12. Delimitation of coastal waters between
adjacent States initially varied between
several approaches and States may utilize line
of latitude, drawing a line perpendicular to
the coast, or again employing a median line
13.
14. Thalweg – middle line of the deepest
water of the straits (Selat Tebrau)
Cannon Shot Rule - Dutch lawyer
Bynkershoek, in his book Dominion of the
Sea published in 1704 :
i. the open ocean could not be wholly
brought under the dominion
ii. a coastal State enjoys sovereignty over the
waters adjacent to its coastline as far
seawards as a cannon can fire a cannon
ball
15. territorial sea was introduced but no certain
limit was specified.
Median line as the delimitation principle
16. Boggs, S. Whittemore introduced “every
point of which is equidistant from the nearest
point or points on opposite shores”.
17. Emphasized on the cannon shot rule to 3
nm.
United States issued two Truman
Proclamations to extend the fisheries
jurisdiction and continental shelf
“the Government of the United States
regards the natural resources of the subsoil
and sea bed of the continental shelf
beneath the high seas but contiguous to the
coasts of the United States as appertaining
to the United States, subject to its
jurisdiction and control.
