[512] See, for instance, Twiss, I. § 172, and Westlake, I. p. 160.
[513] See Grotius, II. c. 2, § 3.
[515] Connected with the reason for the freedom of the Open Sea is the merely theoretical question whether the vessels of a State could through an international treaty be prevented from navigating on the whole or on certain parts of the Open Sea. See Pradier-Fodéré, II. Nos. 881-885, where this point is exhaustively discussed.
IV JURISDICTION ON THE OPEN SEA
Vattel, II. § 80—Hall, § 45—Westlake, I. pp. 166-176—Lawrence, § 100—Halleck, p. 438—Taylor, §§ 262-267—Walker, § 20—Wheaton, § 106—Moore, II. §§ 309-310—Bluntschli, §§ 317-352—Heffter, §§ 78-80—Stoerk in Holtzendorff, II. pp. 518-550—Liszt, § 26—Bonfils, Nos. 578-580, 597-613—Despagnet, Nos. 422-430—Mérignhac, II. pp. 505-511—Pradier-Fodéré, V. Nos. 2376-2470—Rivier, I. § 18—Nys, II. pp. 139-165—Calvo, I. §§ 385-473—Fiore, II. Nos. 730-742, and Code, Nos. 1001-1027—Martens, II. §§ 55-56—Perels, § 12—Testa, pp. 98-112—Ortolan, "Diplomatie de la mer" (1856), II. 254-326—Hall, "Foreign Powers and Jurisdiction of the British Crown" (1894), §§ 106-109.
Jurisdiction on the Open Sea mainly connected with Flag.
§ 260. Jurisdiction on the Open Sea is in the main connected with the maritime flag under which vessels sail. This is the consequence of the fact stated above[516] that a certain legal order is created on the Open Sea through the co-operation of rules of the Law of Nations with rules of the Municipal Laws of such States as possess a maritime flag. But two points must be emphasised. The one is that this jurisdiction is not jurisdiction over the Open Sea as such, but only over vessels, persons, and goods on the Open Sea. And the other is that jurisdiction on the Open Sea is, although mainly, not exclusively connected with the flag under which vessels sail, because men-of-war of all nations have, as will be seen,[517] certain powers over merchantmen of all nations. The points which must therefore be here discussed singly are—the claim of vessels to sail under a certain flag, ship-papers, the names of vessels, the connection of vessels with the territory of the flag State, the safety of traffic on the Open Sea, the powers of men-of-war over merchantmen of all nations, and, lastly, shipwreck.