Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/140

 the subject, whether general or national and special, is lucidly, though in brief, presented by M. Ernest Nys in the chapter on 'La Liberté des Mers' in his work Les Origines du Droit international. 'Le droit romain range la mer parmi les choses qui, en vertu du droit naturel, sont communes à tous. Au moyen âge, dès que le commerce maritime prend de l'importance, dès qu'il devient l'un des grands facteurs de la richesse publique, apparaissent les prétentions des gouvernements sur certaines mers,'

Material for a study of the subject from the standpoint of the interests and claims of England in the seventeenth century will be found in a recently published work on The Sovereignty of the Sea, and in Gardiner's History. The volume of the Navy Records Society on Law and Custom of the Sea contains supplementary material of historical value.