Is Hudson Bay a Closed or an Open Sea?

• Published in: American Journal of International Law
• Main Author: Balch, Thomas Willing
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1912
• Subjects: Law; Political Science and International Relations; Hudson Bay; Canada; Hudson
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2187460; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002930000094999

Many of the foremost jurisconsults of the world, representing many nations, have in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries stated that Hudson Bay, a great North American sea, is a part of the open sea, and consequently free to the vessels of all nations for the purposes of navigation and fishing. This seems to have been a generally accepted doctrine until the close of the nineteenth century. Within recent years, however, the Dominion of Canada has set up the claim that all American vessels that enter Hudson Bay to catch fish or hunt whales must pay a license. The maintenance of such a policy would be tantamount to making of Hudson Bay a closed sea ( mare clausum ).