Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 8

For the 17th century Mare liberum and Mare clausum were the centerpieces of the debate between advocates of exclusive and inclusive uses of ocean space. In England, Mare clausum reigned supreme as the authority on all questions of sovereignty at sea, although its authority on more mundane legal issues of maritime law yielded late in that century to Charles Molloy's De jure maritime et navali, or, A Treatise of Affaires Maritime, and of Commerce (1676), which dealt with mercantile questions such as bills of exchange, insurance and maritime loans.

Molloy, Charles (1646-1690). De jure maritimo et navali (London, 1682).
This popular work went through 12 editions between 1676 and 1778.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Neither Welwood nor Selden dealt decisively with the question of how far out to sea a sovereign’s territorial sea could extend: Welwood seemed to suggest one hundred miles, but left the issue open; Selden finessed it entirely.  In time, British maritime power rendered such matters moot: as an old saw had it, "Britannia rules the waves – and waives the rules."

But by the end of the century, support was growing elsewhere for some limitation to the seaward extent of territorial waters. What emerged was the so-called "cannon shot rule", which deferred in theory to the idea that property rights could be acquired by actual occupation, and in practice to the effective range of shore-based cannon: about three nautical miles. The rule has long been associated with Cornelis van Bijnkershoek (1673-1743), a Dutch jurist who, especially in his De dominio maris (1702), advocated a middle ground between the extremes of Grotius and Selden, accepting both the freedom of states to navigate and exploit the resources the of the high seas and a right of coastal state to assert wide-ranging rights in a thus limited territorial sea.

Bijnkershoek, Cornelis van (1673-1743). De dominio maris (The Hague, 1703).
Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library.

Viewed in historical perspective, what emerged from the 17th-century debate were not just these two legal regimes, but a more inclusive one – international law – to govern humanity's common interest in the use of shared space and shared resources, interest as to which the future may well offer exhibits of its own.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

"Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law," curated by Edward Gordon and Michael Widener, is on display October 2009 through January 2010 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 7

In supporting his case with a massive showing of state practice, Selden was able to draw upon historical research done by the Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, Sir John Borough, whose work, The Sovereignty of the British Seas Proved by Records, History, and the Municipall Lawes of the Kingdome, written in 1633, was published only posthumously in 1651.

Borough, John (d. 1643). The soveraignty of the British seas (London, 1739).
The third edition.
Collection of Edward Gordon.

Grotius, too, was able to draw upon earlier work. Some of his arguments had been anticipated by the writings of Alberico Gentili (1552-1608), an Italian émigré who became Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, and at least as prominently, an admiralty lawyer in London, representing the king of Spain. Gentili died before the publication of Mare liberum, but in his notes in defense of Spanish claims, published posthumously in 1613 as Hispanicae advocationis, he organized the issues far more systematically than the youthful Grotius had been able to do in Mare liberum.

Like Grotius, Gentili said that under Roman law, consistently with natural law, the open sea was common property. But he recognized the gap between principle and practice, bridging it by distinguishing dominium (ownership) from jurisdictio (jurisdiction) – the latter, unlike the former, being applicable to the high seas. He also distinguished coastal waters from the high seas, insisting, however, that a coastal state’s right to control its territorial seas did not justify closing them to foreign navigation.

His ideas anticipated those of De jure belli ac pacis as well. In his use of phrases like ius inter gentes and societas humana, for example, Gentili may be said to have initiated the liberation of the law of nations conceptually from both Roman law and the guardianship of theology. Not until the late 19th century, however, was the extent of influence on Grotius recognized by scholars. Only then did Gentili's reputation as a founder of modern international law begin to rival that of Grotius himself.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Gentili, Alberico (1552-1608). Hispanicae advocationis libri duo (Hanover, 1613).
Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library.

"Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law," curated by Edward Gordon and Michael Widener, is on display October 2009 through January 2010 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.

Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law
An exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of Hugo Grotius's Mare Liberum
Part 6

William Welwood's work eventually drew a response from a Dutch lawyer, Dirck Graswinckel, entitled Mare liberi vindiciae adversus Gulielmum Welwodum (1653), but its relative obscurity today owes more to the publication in 1635 of Mare clausum, by John Selden (1594-1654), an English jurist, scholar and polymath whose erudition rivaled that of Grotius himself. Selden had begun researching and writing a refutation of Mare liberum soon after its publication, even before Welwood's two treatises appeared. He had completed it by around 1618, by which time, however, a coup d'etat had taken place in the Netherlands, Grotius had been imprisoned, and relations between England and the new government were unsettled. King James was reluctant anyway to provoke a dispute with Denmark, which had extensive claims of its own in the North Atlantic. Under the circumstances, the moment seemed inauspicious for a verbal assault on Grotius and the freedom of the seas – and James refused to publish Mare clausum.

Selden apparently abandoned the project for nearly seventeen years. By then, Grotius, having escaped from prison in 1621 and living in exile in France, had published his more mature and celebrated masterpiece, De jure belli ac pacis (1625), later translated into English as The Rights of Warre and Peace (1654), in which he toned down some of the extravagant positions he had taken in his youthful defense of the seizure of the Santa Catarina, constructing instead a more sophisticated basis for a law of nature and nations independent of empire or religious guardianship that was, not coincidentally, notably less lenient in justifying the resort to armed force.

By then, Selden's personal status had changed, too. Having become embroiled in parliamentary politics, he himself had been imprisoned and was now ensconced in the Tower of London. James meanwhile had been succeeded by Charles I, whose maritime policy was more aggressive than that of either of his two predecessors. In returning to his attack on Mare liberum, therefore, Selden was faced not only with the task of exposing weaknesses in Mare liberum, as Welwood had done and as he himself presumably had already done in his 1618 draft, but also with the more demanding one of taking into account the comprehensive legal regime Grotius had subsequently presented in De jure belli ac pacis. And he had to do both in a way that ingratiated himself with Charles.

Selden's treatise, like Grotius's, is remarkable for its erudition, too much so for modern readers, who tend to see in both works an excess of pedantry, but decisively impressive to the two men's own contemporaries. Selden conceded the innocence of harmless navigation and commerce, but maintained that restrictions on them do not necessarily violate the law of nature and the law of nations. He purported to show that the open sea is not everywhere common, is capable of appropriation, and in fact from time to time had been appropriated and occupied. As to the Spanish and Portuguese claims, whose legitimacy England continued to deny, Selden said that, while on general principles they could be valid, in actual practice neither of the two countries ever acquired valid title or command to the areas they claimed.

-- Notes by Edward Gordon

Selden, John (1584-1654). Mare clausum (London, 1635).
The first edition of Selden’s Mare clausum is also famous as the first use of Arabic type in England. The map depicts what ancient geographers called "the British sea."
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Selden, John (1584-1654). Mare clausum: the right and dominion of the sea (London, 1663).
The second edition of the English translation of Mare clausum.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

Grotius, Hugo (1583-1645). Of the law of warre and peace (London, 1655).
The second English edition, appearing only a year after the first. The portrait bears Grotius's motto, "Ruit Hora" ("Time flies"), reflecting his busy and productive career as a jurist, diplomat, and author.
Rare Book Collection, Lillian Goldman Law Library.

"Freedom of the Seas, 1609: Grotius and the Emergence of International Law," curated by Edward Gordon and Michael Widener, is on display October 2009 through January 2010 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School.