Sovereignty And The Sea

Until the mid-1950s nearly all the waters lying between the far-flung islands of the Indonesian archipelago were as open to the ships of all nations as the waters of the great oceans. In order to enhance its failing sovereign grasp over the nation, as well as to deter perceived external threats to Indonesia’s national integrity, in 1957 the Indonesian government declared that it had “absolute sovereignty” over all the waters lying within straight baselines drawn between the outermost islands of Indonesia. At a single step, Indonesia had asserted its dominion over a vast swathe of what had hitherto been seas open to all, and made its lands and the seas it now claimed a single unified entity for the first time. International outrage and alarm ensued, expressed especially by the great maritime nations. Nevertheless, despite its low international profile, its relative poverty, and its often frail state capacity, Indonesia eventually succeeded in gaining international recognition for its claim when, in 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea formally recognized the existence of a new category of states known as “archipelagic states” and declared that these states had sovereignty over their “archipelagic waters”. Sovereignty and the Sea explains how Indonesia succeeded in its extraordinary claim. At the heart of Indonesia’s archipelagic campaign was a small group of Indonesian diplomats. Largely because of their dogged persistence, negotiating skills, and willingness to make difficult compromises Indonesia became the greatest archipelagic state in the world.

This book is an attempt to bring together all the available information regarding the sovereignty of the British Seas. The author aimed to trace the development of territorial waters during his time, i.e., the early 1900s. The book is split into two sections, the first containing a historical account of the claims made to the authority of the sea; the second dealing with the relic of such claims. Thomas Wemyss Fulton originally undertook this work to deal only with the subjects related to the sea fisheries. It soon became apparent that restricting the scope would lead to multiple disadvantages and present only a partial picture. This brilliant work laid the foundation on which all future research concerning the history of the British Sea Fisheries is based.

"While numerous studies have examined Woodrow Wilson's neutrality policy prior to U.S. entry into World War I and how he eventually formulated his war goals after U.S. engagement, the historical literature has not focused on the actual merchant ship losses that created the final casus belli."--Front matter.

This powerful reworking of the liberal tradition of international law uses Grotius as the vehicle for understanding coming challenges to the global commons. Fundamental problems of scarcity, sovereignty, anachronistic thinking, and territorial temptation are interwoven in historical and contemporary contexts to illuminate the tendency among states to share resources, but only when necessary.

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Excerpt from The Sovereignty of the Sea: An Historical Account of the Claims of England to the Dominion of the British Seas, and of the Evolution, of the Territorial Waters, With Special Reference to the Rights of Fishing, and the Naval Salute IN this book I have endeavoured to bring together from all available sources such information as exists as to the claims formerly made to the sovereignty of the British Seas, and to trace the evolution of the territorial waters in recent times. The work was originally undertaken with the intention of dealing only with these subjects so far as they related to the sea fisheries, but it soon became apparent that to restrict the scope in this way would involve considerable disadvantages, and would enable only a partial picture to be presented. For though during a large part of the period with which the book is concerned, the question of the fishery was the main question in determining the claim to sea sovereignty, and is the one of the greatest frequency at the present day with respect to the territorial waters, it was by no means the only one. The freedom of commerce to regions more or less remote; the jurisdiction of a State in the sea which washed its shores or which it claimed as belonging to it; the naval salute or homage to the flag, and various other matters, were commonly bound up with the question of the fisheries. It was therefore deemed more satisfactory to treat the subject as a whole, even though this necessarily involved much additional labour. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.