square mile; its highest point is 125 feet above sea level, and a privately maintained lighthouse is on the island at lat 12°18′ N., long 82°59′ W. The Corn Islands are not considered possessions of the United States. Although by terms of the convention they are subject exclusively to the laws and sovereign authority of the United States during the term of the lease or any renewal thereof, in fact the Nicaraguan Government has continued in the local administration of the islands, with the acquiescence of the United States. The right to the use of the islands remains unimpaired. By the same convention the United States acquired the perpetual right to construct and maintain a ship canal between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean by way of Lake Nicaragua. These concessions cost the United States $3 million. Sovereignty over these islands and over those along the Mosquito Coast was in dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua prior to 1928, but a treaty, concluded in that year and ratified by the two Governments in 1930, confirmed Nicaragua's claim. (British Foreign Office, 1928, p. 297.) TRUST TERRITORY OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands embraces three groups of islands in the western Pacific Ocean: the Carolines, Marianas, and Marshalls. The 2,000 islands, of which approximately 100 are inhabited, cover less than 700 square miles of land in some 3 million square miles of ocean. These islands lie north of the equator stretching from 1° to 20° north latitude and from 130° to 172° east longitude. They vary in size from large islands, such as Babelthaup (153 square miles) in the Palaus and Ponape (129 square miles) in the eastern Carolines, to small atolls of less than 1 square mile of area. Elevation above sea level is only a few feet on the low-lying coral atolls, but may reach 2,000 to 3,000 feet on islands of volcanic origin. This area was controlled by the Japanese under a mandate from the League of Nations before World War II, and since that time has been administered by the United States under a trusteeship agreement with the United Nations. Administration of the trust territory is under the Office of Territories, Department of the Interior. A report is submitted annually by the United States to the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations. Under terms of the agreement, the United States has authority to establish military bases in the territory and to close all or any part of it for security reasons. The inhabitants number about 80,000. They are classified as Micronesians, a term derived from the small size of the islands. The United States has accepted obligations to the United Nations for the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territory. TERRITORIAL WATERS AND THE CONTINENTAL SHELF "Territorial waters" is the term applied to the part of the open sea over which a bordering nation may claim jurisdiction for its own protection. It is generally conceded that jurisdiction over a belt of water along the coast 1 marine league 53 (about 31⁄2 statute miles) wide, measured from the low-water line, may be thus claimed, but the passage of neutral vessels engaged in peaceful pursuits through this area may not be forbidden. The general rule regarding territorial waters has many exceptions and "now has no legal basis except the so-called 'common consent of nations."" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910, v. 14, p. 698.) Bays or arms of the sea, if in large part surrounded by the territory of a single nation, are usually considered entirely within the jurisdiction of that nation, even though the entrances are more than 2 leagues across. The Hague tribunal in September 1910 decided in a special case submitted to it (regarding fisheries in the North Atlantic) that for bays contiguous to the territory of the Dominion of Canada the 3 marine miles are to be measured from a straight line drawn across the body of water at the place where it ceases to have the configuration and characteristics of a bay. At all other places the 3 marine miles are to be measured following the sinuosities of the coast. [Charles, 1913, p. 69.] This decision does not now apply to other localities but may be considered a precedent for future agreements (Hyde, 1922, p. 251– 270). A joint commission acting under the treaty with Great Britain of June 5, 1854 (Malloy, 1910, v. 1, p. 668), agreed on proper locations for the mouths of 105 rivers emptying into the Atlantic between the 36th parallel and northern Labrador, and they defined these locations by straight lines between well-known points (Moore, 1898, v. 1, p. 473-494). Although the treaty was abrogated in 1866, the positions selected for the river mouths may still be regarded as well chosen. When the 3-mile limit was adopted, it was thought to be the extreme range of cannon that could be used for coast defense. Today with aircraft as the principal weapon for coast defense, a distance of 3 miles no longer has any significance except as a time-honored accepted figure. In section 1 of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain signed January 23, 1924, it was declared that 3 marine miles extending from the coast-line outwards and measured from low-water mark constitute the proper limits of territorial waters. Texas claimed jurisdiction over the Gulf of Mexico for 3 leagues from land. See p. 43. That treaty gave the United States certain conditional rights of search or seizure over private vessels flying the British flag when within 1 hour's sailing distance from the coast of the United States or its possessions (43 Stat. L. 1761). Similar treaties have been effected with several other nations. Section 581 of the tariff act of 1922 (42 Stat. L. 979) provides for the boarding of any vessel within 4 leagues of the coast of the United States in order to inspect, search, or seize the vessel, where a violation of U.S. law is evident. The interest in the sovereignty of off-shore areas has greatly increased because of extensive fishing operations and shrimp and oyster cultivation and the presence of minerals below the submerged lands. Only in the last few years has it been practical to extract oil from beneath the ocean floor at any great distance from the shore. On September 28, 1945, the President issued two proclamations. One reserved and set aside the natural resources of the Continental Shelf under the high seas and placed these resources for administrative purposes, pending legislative action, under the jurisdiction and control of the Secretary of the Interior. The other proclamation provided for establishment by executive orders, on recommendation of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Interior, of fishingconservation zones in areas of the high seas contiguous to the United States. The proclamation stated that the territorial limits of the United States are not extended, and the State Department (in its Bull. 327, Sept. 30, 1945) said, "Generally, submerged land which is contiguous to the continent and which is covered by no more than 100 fathoms (600 feet) of water is considered as the Continental Shelf." In 1952, a Congressional committee reported on the study of the seaward boundaries of the United States. The report acknowledged that the subject was very complicated and thoroughly discussed the problems involved. It recommended that the study be continued at the following session of Congress, and that Congress should establish criteria for fixing the seaward boundaries of the inland waters, following which a commission should be delegated to fix the line on the ground by actual survey. Several formulas have been proposed for defining the seaward limit of inland waters (Boggs, 1940, chap. 10). However, the International Court of Justice, in its decision of the case of United Kingdom v. Norway, held that there are no rules of a "technically precise character" by which the validity of a nation's seaward boundary under international law could be measured. In 1953, Congress by Public Law 31, the Submerged Lands Act, gave to the States jurisdiction over the seabed and natural resources under territorial waters (67 Stat. L. 29). The law confirmed the seaward boundary of the original coastal States as being 3 geographical (nautical) miles distant from the coastline, "coastline" being defined as mean low tide or the seaward limit of inland waters. It also gave permission to any coastal State, admitted since the formation of the Union, to extend its boundaries to the 3-mile line. The law provided that in no event can the term "boundaries" be interpreted as extending more than 3 geographic miles into the Atlantic or the Pacific, or more than 3 leagues into the Gulf of Mexico. Public Law 212, the Outer Continental Shelf Act, passed the same year (67 Stat. L. 462), asserted Federal jurisdiction over the seabed and its resources between the outer limits of the territorial waters and the outer limits of the Continental Shelf. This law provided that it shall be construed "in such a manner that the character as high seas of the waters above the outer Continental Shelf, and the right to navigation and fishing therein shall not be affected." In 1954, the United States joined with other United Nations members in requesting the inclusion of the matters of the Continental Shelf and fishing conservation on the agenda of the General Assembly. The Assembly decided not to deal with these questions until after they had been studied by the International Law Commission. An article on the Law of the Sea, as established in the 1958 Geneva Convention, states: For the purposes of these articles, the term "Continental Shelf" is used as referring (a) to the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas adjacent to the coast but outside the area of the territorial sea, to a depth of 200 meters or, beyond that limit, to where the depth of the superjacent waters admit of the exploitation of the natural resources of the said area; (b) to the seabed and subsoil of similar submarine areas adjacent to the coasts of islands. While the United States has never taken the position that its seaward boundaries extend more than 3 miles from its coastline, the provisions of the Submerged Land Act gave the Gulf Coast States reason to believe that they might extend their seaward boundaries 3 leagues into the Gulf of Mexico. Legal proceedings were initiated in the Supreme Court to determine if any of the States had a valid claim to the submerged lands more than 3 geographic miles from the low-waterline of its coast. The cases against the five Gulf Coast States were consolidated, and a decision was handed down on May 31, 1960, in the case of United States v. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas (363 U.S. 1), and Florida (363 U.S. 121). The Texas boundary was confirmed as 3 marine leagues. Texas had been an independent nation for 10 years before its annexation to the United States. The congressional resolution admitting Texas as a State accepted the boundaries as described by the Republic of Texas, which stated that they were 3 leagues from land. The annexation resolution was the deciding factor in the ruling of the Court. Florida was likewise granted a width of territorial sea extending 3 leagues into the Gulf of Mexico. The Court stated in its decision that Congress had approved Florida's 1868 constitution, submitted in compliance with the 1867 Reconstruction Acts, which specified a boundary at a distance of 3 leagues from the shoreline. This has no bearing on the Atlantic boundary, which is limited by the Submerged Lands Act to 3 geographical miles. The other three States were denied more than a 3-mile belt of territorial sea. In brief, the Court could find nothing in the enabling acts admitting them to the Union which would justify their claims to water areas lying off their shores. The determination of the position of the seaward limit of inland waters (the seaward limit of the marginal sea depends on this) is a complicated matter. It involves the use of coastal charts, tidal data, and a complex set of criteria. A recent book by Shalowitz (1962) gives a complete discussion of the legal and technical matters involved. THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND THE CHANGES MADE CESSIONS BY THE STATES In 1776, when the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence of England, many of them possessed unoccupied territory, much of which was entirely detached and lay west of the Applachian Mountains. Thus Georgia included the territory from its present eastern limits westward to the Mississippi River. North Carolina possessed a strip extending from lat 35° to 36°30′ N., approximately, and westward to the Mississippi; this strip included the area of the present State of Tennessee. In like manner Virginia possessed what is now Kentucky, and a number of States, including Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia, laid claims to areas in what was afterward known as the territory northwest of the River Ohio, a region now contained mainly in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. These claims were to a greater or lesser extent conflicting. Authority over some areas was claimed by several States, and most of the boundary lines were very ill defined. The ownership of these western lands by individual States was opposed by those States that did not share in their possession, mainly on the ground that the resources of the General Government, to which all contributed, should not be used for the protection and develop 54 For a discussion of these changes, see Paxson (1924, chap. 5, 6). U.S. Cong. (1900) contains copies of organic acts for the Territories from 1787 to 1900 compiled from U.S. statutes. It contains a copy of the ordinance of 1787 and notes regarding it; also contains extracts from State papers relating to U.S. territory in general. |