ABSTRACT
The three-milo limit originated in the eighteenth century. Previously, states had fixed their seaward boundaries at various limits for various purpose si range of cannon shot for neutrality, range of eyesight for security, and one or more marine leagues for fishing.During the late eighteenth century the French Foreign Office and Italian writers suggested that a uniform limit of three miles might bemore suitable. When forced to proolaim a neutral zone in the war between England and France, the fledgeling United States hurriedly andreluctantly adopted the three-mile limit as a temporary measure in 1793. Great Britain, perceiving the world-wide advantages that such a narrow international limit of territorial waters would afford her vastly superior merchant, naval, and fishing fleets, adopted that limit for herself. Then with the consensus of the other great powers, Britain championed the three-mile limit to its peak of strength as a rule of
international law in the 1920s. Only Soviet Russia, devastated by military defeat and civil war, diplomatically ostracized, and possessing no maritime assets, claimed a greater extent, twelve miles.
During the inter-war period there commenced a series of events and developments leading to the decline and demise of the three-mile rule.World War Two saw the return of Russia as a great power. She reaffirmed her twelve-mile claim and many states followed suit. The United States' 1945 proclamations on the continental shelf and fisheries trig-
gered several Latin American state olaims to 200-mile limits. The United States, having inherited Britain's role as champion of the three-mile limit, was not in a position to defend it forcibly as had the British.
To challenge the Soviet twelve-mile claim and the Latin American 200-mile claims would have risked nuclear war and a disruption of the Inter- American System, respectively. By the end of the 1960's, international agreement had been replaced by an anarchic situation with respect to the extent of the territorial sea. The three-mile limit was dead, having been superseded by several special limits for special purposes.
The study includes an historical summary of the development of the concept of territorial waters. The opinions of publicists; state domestic practice, laws, decrees, and court cases; and international conventions, arbitrations, and tribunals are examined for each historical period of the study. Additionally, the three-mile limit is consider ed in terms of its impact on international relations and from the standpoint of individual states' interests.
The study leads to two conclusions; First, it will require United States-Soviet Union agreement on a limit of territorial seas if the existing law of the sea anarchy is to be overcome. Second, unless the successor to the three-mile limit— presumably the twelve-mile limit—meet with the same fate, states must withdraw their several olaims to special jurisdiction beyond the territorial sea, e. g. , the continental shelf, special fishing rights, security, etc. , and settle on one limitbeyond which the seas and their resources are free for the use of all.