THE NATIONS: Four Miles Out

• Share

One of the muddiest expanses in the ill-charted sea of international law is the question of territorial waters—the extent to which a coastal nation controls the sea around it. Some nations, e.g., Spain, Italy, Iran, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Brazil, claim a six-mile limit; others, e.g., the Scandinavians, claim four. Most countries accept the limit of three marine miles, a tradition that goes back to the 18th Century, when a good cannon on the shore could heave a ball three miles to sea.* But many governments have added qualifications which extend their claims beyond three miles, and they never have been able to agree on where the measuring begins. Some measure by the high-water mark, others low-water; others begin at a depth where the waters cease to be navigable.

For centuries British and Norwegian diplomats have politely quarreled over British fishing boats which sailed north to scoop cod out of the fish-rich" "underwater terraces" off Norway. Early in the

Century, King Christian IV put a lengthy stop to it with a heated protest to London, but early this century British fishing boats again edged into the shallow waters, which Norway claimed fell within her four-mile limit. When the Norwegian protests didn't work, they began seizing British trawlers and fining their masters.

Last week, petitioned by the British, the International Court of Justice at The Hague handed down a ruling on this vexing issue. Britain argued that the proper way to measure four miles out is to follow the contours of the coast, bending the territorial limit like a ribbon shaped to the mainland's contour. Under that system, a goodly part of the waters fished by British trawlers would be open sea, free to all comers. The Norwegians argued for their own system, which measures the four-mile zone from lines drawn between the outermost land points and rocks along her saw-toothed coast. It would be utterly ridiculous, the Norwegians contended, to try to figure out a four-mile limit based on their coastline and even worse to attempt to police it.

The court's verdict (ten judges to two): Norway is right. The defeated British indicated that they would salvage some satisfaction by using the same measuring stick for their fishing grounds off the ragged coasts of Scotland, where Norwegian trawlers fish. Unlike Norway, they may have trouble proving that their, claim has been shored up by what the international court calls "constant and sufficiently long practice."