CHAPTER VII

_Neither the Sea nor the right of navigation thereon belongs to the Portuguese by title of prescription or custom_

The last defense of injustice is usually a claim or plea based on prescription or on custom. To this defense therefore the Portuguese have resorted. But the best established reasoning of the law precludes them from enjoying the protection of either plea.

Prescription is a matter of municipal law; hence it cannot be applied as between kings, or as between free and independent nations.[114] It has even less standing when it is in conflict with that which is always stronger than the municipal law, namely, the law of nature or nations. Nay, even municipal law itself prevents prescription in this case.[115] For it is impossible to acquire by usucaption or prescription things which cannot become property, that is, which are not susceptible of possession or of quasi-possession, and which cannot be alienated. All of which is true with respect to the sea and its use.

And since public things, that is, things which are the property of a nation, cannot be acquired by mere efflux of time, either because of their nature, or because of the prerogatives of those against whom such prescription would act, is it not vastly more just that the benefits accruing from the enjoyment of common things should be given to the entire human race than to one nation alone? On this point

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quod Papinianus scriptum reliquit,[116a] ‘praescriptionem longae possessionis ad obtinenda loca iurisgentium publica concedi non solere’; eiusque rei exemplum dat in litore, cuius pars imposito aedificio occupata fuerat. Nam eo diruto, et alterius aedificio in eodem loco postea exstructo, exceptionem opponi non posse; quod deinde similitudine rei publicae illustrat, nam et si quis in fluminis diverticulo pluribus annis piscatus sit, postea, interrupta scilicet piscatione, alterum eodem iure prohibere non posse.

Apparet igitur Angelum et qui cum Angelo dixerunt[117a] Venetis et Genuensibus per praescriptionem ius aliquod in sinum maris suo litori praeiacentem acquiri potuisse, aut falli, aut fallere, quod sane Iurisconsultis nimium est frequens, cum sanctae professionis auctoritatem, non ad rationes et leges, sed ad gratiam conferunt potentiorum. Nam Martiani quidem responsum, de quo et ante egimus, si recte cum Papiniani verbis comparetur,[118a] non aliam accipere potest interpretationem, quam eam quae et Iohanni olim et Bartolo probata est, et nunc a doctis omnibus recipitur:[119a] ut scilicet ius prohibendi procedat quamdiu durat occupatio,

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Papinian has said:[116] ‘Prescription raised by long possession is not customarily recognized as valid in the acquisition of places known to international law as “public”’. As an example, to illustrate this point, he cites a shore some part of which had been occupied by means of a building constructed on it. But if this building should be destroyed, and some one else later should construct a building on the same spot, no exception could be taken to it. Then he illustrates the same point by the analogous case of a _res publica_. If, for example, any one has fished for many years in a branch of a river, and has then stopped fishing there, after that he cannot prevent any one else from enjoying the same right that he had.

Wherefore it appears that Angeli[117] and his followers who have said that the Venetians and Genoese were able to acquire by prescription certain specific rights in the gulfs of the sea adjacent to their shores, either are mistaken, or are deceiving others; a thing which happens all too frequently with jurists when they exercise the authority of their sacred profession not for justice and law, but in order to gain the gratitude of the powerful. There is also an opinion of Marcianus, already cited above in another connection, which, when carefully compared with the words of Papinian,[118] can have no other interpretation than the one formerly adopted by Johannes and Bartolus,* and now accepted by all learned men,[119] namely, that the _jus prohibendi_ is in effect only while occupation lasts; it loses its force if occupation

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non autem si ea omissa sit; omissa enim non prodest, nec si per mille annos fuisset continuata, ut recte animadvertit Castrensis. Et quamvis hoc voluisset Martianus, quod minime credendus est cogitasse, in quo loco occupatio conceditur, in eodem praescriptionem concedi, tamen absurdum erat quod de flumine publico dictum erat ad Mare commune, et quod de diverticulo ad sinum proferre, cum haec praescriptio usum qui est Iuregentium communis, impeditura sit, illa autem publico usui non admodum noceat. Alterum autem Angeli argumentum quod ex aquaeductu sumitur,[120a] eodem Castrensi monstrante, ut a quaestione alienissimum, ab omnibus merito exploditur.

Falsum igitur est talem praescriptionem etiam eo tempore gigni, cuius initium omnem memoriam excedat. Vbi enim lex omnem omnino tollit praescriptionem, ne istud quidem tempus admittitur, hoc est, ut Felinus loquitur,[121a] materia impraescriptibilis tempore immemoriali non fit praescriptibilis. Fatetur haec vera esse Balbus;[122a] sed Angeli sententiam receptam dicit hac ratione, quia tempus extra memoriam positum idem valere creditur privilegio, cum titulus amplissimus ex tali tempore praesumatur. Apparet hinc non aliud illos sensisse, quam si pars aliqua reipublicae, puta Imperi Romani, supra omnem memoriam usa esset tali iure, ei dandam praescriptionem hoc colore, quasi Principis

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cease; and occupation once interrupted, even if it had been continuous for a thousand years, loses its rights, as Paul de Castro† justly observes. And even if Marcianus had meant--which certainly was not in his mind at all--that acquisition by prescription is to be recognized wherever occupation is recognized, still it would have been absurd to apply what had been said about a public river to the common sea, or what had been said about an inlet or a river branch to a bay, since in the latter case prescription would hinder the use of something common to all by the law of nations, and in the former case would work no great injury to public use. Moreover, another argument brought forward by Angeli based on the use of aqueducts,[120] has quite properly been rejected by every one, being, as de Castro pointed out, entirely aside from the point.

* [Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1314-1357) the most famous of the Post-glossators, was called by many of his biographers ‘Optimus auriga in hac civili sapientia’.]

† [The celebrated Italian jurist (?-1420 or 1437) of whom Cujas said: “Si vous n’avez pas Paul de Castro, vendez votre chemise pour l’acheter.” (Note from page 55 of the French translation of Grotius by de Grandpont.)]

It is not true then that such prescription rises even at a time beyond the period of the memory of man. For since the law absolutely denies all prescription, not even immemorial time has any effect on the question; that is, as Felinus[121] says, things imprescriptible by nature do not become prescriptible by the mere efflux of immemorial time. Balbus admits the truth of these arguments,[122] but says that the opinion of Angeli is to be accepted on the ground that time immemorial is believed to have the same validity as prerogative for setting up a title, since a perfect title is presumed from such efflux of time. Hence it appears that the jurists thought if some part of a state, say of the Roman empire for example, at a period before the memory of man had exercised such a right, that a title by prescription would

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concessio praeiisset. Quare cum nemo sit dominus totius generis humani, qui ius illud adversus homines omnes homini, aut populo alicui potuisset concedere, sublato illo colore, necesse est etiam praescriptionem interimi. Et sic ex illorum etiam sententia inter reges aut populos liberos prodesse nihil potest lapsus infiniti temporis.

Vanissimum autem et illud est quod Angelus docuit, etiamsi ad dominium praescriptio proficere non potest, tamen dandam esse possidenti exceptionem. Nam Papinianus disertis verbis exceptionem negat:[123a] et aliter non potuit sentire, cum ipsius saeculo praescriptio nihil esset aliud quam exceptio. Verum igitur est quod et leges Hispanicae exprimunt[124a] in his rebus quae communi hominum usui sunt attributae, nullius omnino temporis praescriptionem procedere, cuius definitionis illa praeter ceteras ratio reddi potest, quod qui re communi utitur, ut communi uti videtur, non autem iure proprio, et ita praescribere non magis quam fructuarius potest vitio possessionis.[125a]

Altera haec etiam non contemnenda est, quod in praescriptione temporis cuius memoria non exstat, quamvis titulus et bona fides praesumantur, tamen si re ipsa appareat titulum omnino nullum dari posse, et sic manifesta sit fides mala, quae in populo maxime quasi uno corpore perpetua esse

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have to be admitted on that ground, exactly as if there had been a previous grant from a Prince. But inasmuch as there is no one who is sovereign of the whole human race with competence to grant to any man or to any nation such a right against all other men, with the annihilation of that pretext, title by prescription is also necessarily destroyed. Therefore the opinion of the jurists is that not even an infinite lapse of time is able to set up a right as between kings or independent nations.

Moreover Angeli brought forward a most foolish argument, affirming that even if prescription could not create ownership, still an exception ought to be made in favor of a possessor. Papinian however in unmistakable words says there is no exception,[123] nor could he think otherwise, because in his day prescription was itself an exception. It is therefore true, as expressed also in the laws of Spain,[124] that prescription based on no matter how immemorial a time, sets up no title to those things which are recognized as common to the use of mankind. One reason among others which can be given for this definition is that any one who uses a _res communis_ does so evidently by virtue of common and not private right, and because of the imperfect character of possession he can therefore no more set up a legal title by prescription than can a usufructuary.[125]

A second reason not to be overlooked is that although a title and good faith are presumed in a prescriptive right created by the efflux of immemorial time, nevertheless if it appears from the nature of the thing itself that no title at all can be established, and if thus there becomes evident bad faith--a thing held to be permanent in a nation as well as in an individual--then prescription fails because of a

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censetur, et ex duplici defectu praescriptio corruit.[126a] Tertia vero, quia res haec est merae facultatis, quae non praescribitur, ut infra demonstrabimus.

Sed nullus est finis argutiarum. Inventi sunt qui in hoc argumento a praescriptione consuetudinem distinguerent, ut illa scilicet exclusi, ad hanc confugerent. Discrimen autem quod hic statuunt sane ridiculum est: ex praescriptione aiunt ius unius quod ab eo aufertur alteri applicari;[127a] sed cum aliquod ius ita alicui applicatur ut alteri non auferatur, tum dici consuetudinem; quasi vero cum ius navigandi quod communiter ad omnes pertinet, exclusis aliis ab uno usurpatur, non necesse sit omnibus perire quantum uni accedit. Errori huic ansam dederunt Pauli verba non recte accepta, qui cum de iure proprio maris ad aliquem pertinente loqueretur,[128a] fieri hoc posse dixit Accursius per privilegium aut consuetudinem: quod additamentum ad Iurisconsulti textum nullo modo accedens mali potius coniectoris esse videtur quam boni interpretis. Mens Pauli supra explicata est. Ceterum illi si vel sola Vlpiani verba,[129a] quae paulo ante praecedunt, satis considerassent, longe aliud dicturi erant. Fatetur enim ut quis ante aedes meas piscari prohibeatur, esse quidem

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double defect.[126] Also a third reason is that we have under consideration a merely facultative right which is not prescriptible, as we shall show below.*

* [See chapter XI.]

But there is no end to their subtilties. There are jurists who in this case would distinguish custom from prescription, so that if they are debarred from the one, they may fall back upon the other. But the distinction which they set up is most absurd. They say that the right of one person which is taken away from him is given to another by prescription;[127] but that when any right is given to any one in such a way that it is not taken away from any one else, then it is called custom. As if indeed the right of navigation, which is common to all, upon being usurped by some one to the exclusion of all others, would not necessarily when it became the property of one be lost to all!

This error receives support from misinterpretation of what Paulus has to say about a private right of possession on the sea.[128] Accursius† said that such a right could be acquired by privilege or custom. But this addition which in no way agrees with the text of the jurist seems to be rather the interpretation of a mischievous guesser than of a faithful interpreter. The real meaning of the words of Paulus has been already explained. Besides, if more careful consideration had been given to the words of Ulpian[129] which almost immediately precede those of Paulus, a very different assertion would have been made. For Ulpian acknowledges that if any one is prohibited from fishing in front of

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usurpatum;[130a] hoc est receptum consuetudine, sed nullo iure, ideoque iniuriarum actionem prohibito non denegandam.

Contemnit igitur hunc morem, et usurpationem vocat, ut et inter Christianos Doctores Ambrosius.[131a] Et merito. Quid enim clarius quam non valere consuetudinem, quae iuri naturae, aut gentium ex adverso opponitur?[132a] Consuetudo enim species est iuris positivi, quod legi perpetuae obrogare non potest. Est autem lex illa perpetua ut Mare omnibus usu commune sit. Quod autem in praescriptione diximus, idem in consuetudine verum est, si quis eorum qui diversum tradiderunt sensus excutiat, non aliud reperturum, quam consuetudinem privilegio parari. Atqui adversus genus humanum concedendi privilegium nemo habet potestatem; quare inter diversas respublicas consuetudo ista vim non habet.

Verum omnem hanc quaestionem diligentissime tractavit Vasquius,[133a] decus illud Hispaniae, cuius nec in explorando iure subtilitatem, nec in docendo libertatem umquam desideres. Is igitur posita thesi: ‘Loca publica et iure gentium communia praescribi non posse’, quam multis firmat auctoribus; exceptiones deinde subiungit ab Angelo et aliis confictas, quas supra retulimus. Haec autem examinaturus recte iudicat istarum rerum veritatem pendere a vera iuris, tam naturae quam gentium cognitione. Ius enim naturae cum a

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my house, such prohibition is a usurpation of right,[130] allowed, it is true, by custom, but based on no law, and that an action for damages could not be denied the person thus prohibited from fishing.

† [Franciscus (?) Accursius (?-1259) (a pupil of the famous Monarcha juris Azzo), with whose name the Glossa Magna is almost synonymous. He was called Advocatorum Idolum.]

He therefore condemns this practice, and calls it a usurpation; of the Christian jurists Ambrose[131] does likewise, and both are right. For what is clearer than that custom is not valid when it is diametrically opposed to the law of nature or of nations?[132] Indeed, custom is a sort of affirmative right, which cannot invalidate general or universal law. And it is a universal law that the sea and its use is common to all. Moreover what we have said about prescription applies with equal truth and force to custom; and if any one should investigate the opinions of those who have differed upon this matter, he would find no other opinion but that custom is established by privilege. No one has the power to confer a privilege which is prejudicial to the rights of the human race; wherefore such a custom has no force as between different states.

This entire question however has been most thoroughly treated by Vasquez,[133] that glory of Spain, who leaves nothing ever to be desired when it comes to subtle examination of the law or to the exposition of the principles of liberty. He lays down this thesis: ‘Places public and common to all by the law of nations cannot become objects of prescription’. This thesis he supports by many authorities, and then he subjoins the objections fabricated by Angeli and others, which we have enumerated above. But before examining these objections he makes the just and reasonable statement that the truth of all these matters depends upon a true conception both of the law of nature and the law of nations.

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divina veniat providentia, esse immutabile. Huius autem iuris naturalis partem esse ius gentium, primaevum quod dicitur, diversum a iure gentium secundario sive positivo, quorum posterius mutari potest. Nam si qui mores cum iure gentium primaevo repugnent, hi non humani sunt ipso iudice, sed FERINI, corruptelae et abusus, non leges et usus. Itaque nullo tempore praescribi potuerunt, nulla lata lege iustificari, nullo multarum etiam gentium consensu, hospitio, et exercitatione stabiliri, quod exemplis aliquot et Alphonsi Castrensis Theologi Hispani testimonio confirmat.[134a]

‘Ex quibus apparet’, inquit, ‘quam suspecta sit sententia eorum, quos supra retulimus, existimantium Genuenses, aut etiam Venetos posse non iniuria prohibere alios navigare per Gulfum aut pelagus sui maris, quasi aequora ipsa praescripserint, id quod non solum est contra leges,[135a] sed etiam est contra ipsum ius naturae, aut gentium primaevum, quod mutari non posse diximus. Quod sit contra illud ius constat, quia non solum maria aut aequora eo iure communia erant sed etiam reliquae omnes res immobiles. Et licet ab eo iure postea recessum fuerit ex parte, puta quoad dominium et proprietatem terrarum, quarum dominium iure Naturae commune, distinctum et divisum, sicque ab illa communione segregatum fuit; tamen[136a] diversum fuit et est in dominio maris,

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For, since the law of nature arises out of Divine Providence, it is immutable; but a part of this natural law is the primary or primitive law of nations, differing from the secondary or positive law of nations, which is mutable. For if there are customs incompatible with the primary law of nations, then, according to the judgment of Vasquez, they are not customs belonging to men, but to wild beasts, customs which are corruptions and abuses; not laws and usages. Therefore those customs cannot become prescriptions by mere lapse of time, cannot be justified by the passage of any law, cannot be established by the consent, the protection, or the practice even of many nations. These statements he confirms by a number of examples, and particularly by the testimony of Alphonse de Castro[134] the Spanish theologian.

‘It is evident therefore’, he says, ‘how much to be suspected is the opinion of those persons mentioned above, who think that the Genoese or the Venetians can without injustice prohibit other nations from navigating the gulfs or bays of their respective seas, as if they had a prescriptive right to the very water itself. Such an act is not only contrary to the laws,[135] but is contrary also to natural law or the primary law of nations, which we have said is immutable. And this is seen to be true because by that same law not only the seas or waters, but also all other immovables were _res communes_. And although in later times there was a partial abandonment of that law, in so far as concerns sovereignty and ownership of lands--which by natural law at first were held in common, then distinguished and divided, and thus finally separated from the primitive community of use;--nevertheless[136] it was different as regards sovereignty over the sea, which from the beginning of the world down to this

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quod ab origine Mundi, ad hodiernum usque diem est, fuitque semper in communi, nulla ex parte immutatum, ut est notum’.

‘Et quamvis ex LVSITANIS magnam turbam saepe audiverim in hac esse opinione ut eorum Rex ita praescripserit navigationem INDICI Occidentalis (forte Orientalis) eiusdemque VASTISSIMI MARIS, ita ut reliquis gentibus aequora illa transfretare non liceat, et ex nostrismet HISPANIS VVLGVS in eadem opinione fere esse videtur, ut per VASTISSIMVM IMMENSVMQVE PONTVM ad Indorum regiones quas potentissimi Reges nostri subegerunt reliquis mortalium navigare praeterquam Hispanis ius minime sit, quasi ab eis id ius praescriptum fuerit, tamen istorum omnium non minus INSANAE sunt opiniones, quam eorum qui quoad Genuenses et Venetos in eodem fere SOMNIO esse adsolent, quas sententias INEPTIRE vel ex eo dilucidius apparet, quod istarum nationum singulae contra seipsas nequeunt praescribere: hoc est, non respublica Venetiarum contra semetipsam, non respublica Genuensium contra semetipsam, non Regnum Hispanicum contra semetipsum, non Regnum Lusitanicum contra semetipsum.[137a] Esse enim debet differentia inter agentem et patientem’.

‘Contra reliquas vero nationes longe minus praescribere possunt, quia ius praescriptionum est mere civile, ut fuse ostendimus supra. Ergo tale ius cessat cum agitur inter principes vel populos, superiorem non recognoscentes in temporalibus. Iura enim mere civilia cuiuscumque regionis,

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very day is and always has been a _res communis_, and which, as is well known, has in no wise changed from that status.

‘And although’, he continues, ‘I have often heard that a great many Portuguese believe that their king has a prescriptive right over the navigation of the vast seas of the West Indies (probably the East Indies too) such that other nations are not allowed to traverse those waters; and although the common people among our own Spaniards seem to be of the same opinion, namely, that absolutely no one in the world except us Spaniards ourselves has the least right to navigate the great and immense sea which stretches to the regions of the Indies once subdued by our most powerful kings, as if that right has been ours alone by prescription; although, I repeat, I have heard both these things, nevertheless the belief of all those people is no less extravagantly foolish than that of those who are always cherishing the same delusions with respect to the Genoese and Venetians. Indeed the opinions of them all appear the more manifestly absurd, because no one of those nations can erect a prescription against itself; that is to say, not the Venetian republic, nor the Genoese republic, nor the kingdom of Spain nor of Portugal can raise prescriptions against rights they already possess by nature.[137] For the one who claims a prescriptive right and the one who suffers by the establishment of such a claim must not be one and the same person.

‘Against other nations they are even much less competent to raise a prescription, because the right of prescription is only a municipal right, as we have shown above at some length. Therefore such a right ceases to have any effect as between rulers or nations who do not recognize a superior in the temporal domain. For so far as the merely municipal laws of any place are concerned, they do not

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quoad exteros populos, nationes, vel etiam homines singulos, non magis sunt in consideratione, quam si re vera esset tale ius, aut numquam fuisset, et ad ius commune gentium primaevum vel secundarium recurrendum est, eoque utendum, quo iure talem maris praescriptionem et usurpationem admissam non fuisse satis constat. Nam, et hodie usus aquarum communis est, non secus quam erat ab origine Mundi. Ergo et in aequoribus et aquis nullum ius est aut esse potest humano generi, praeterquam quoad usum communem. Praeterea de iure naturali et divino est illud praeceptum, ut _Quod tibi non vis fieri, alteri non facias_. Vnde cum navigatio nemini possit esse nociva nisi ipsi naviganti, par est ut nemini possit, aut debeat impediri, ne in re sua natura libera, sibique minime noxia navigantium libertatem impediat, et laedat contra dictum praeceptum et contra regulam praesertim cum omnia intelligantur esse permissa, quae non reperiuntur expressim prohibita.[138a] Quinimo non solum contra ius naturale esset, velle impedire talem navigationem, sed etiam tenemur contrarium facere, hoc est, prodesse iis quibus possumus, cum id sine damno nostro fieri potest’.

Quod cum multis auctoritatibus tam divinis quam humanis confirmasset, subiungit postea:[139a] ‘Ex superioribus etiam apparet suspectam esse sententiam Iohannis Fabri, Angeli, Baldi, et Francisci Balbi, quos supra retulimus, existimantium loca iuris gentium communia, et si acquiri non possint praescriptione, posse tamen acquiri consuetudine,

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affect foreign peoples, nations, or even individuals, any more than if they did not exist or never had existed. Therefore it was necessary to have recourse to the common law of nations, primary as well as secondary, and to use a law which clearly had not admitted any such prescription and usurpation of the sea. For today the use of the waters is common, exactly as it has been since the creation of the world. Therefore no man has a right nor can acquire a right over the seas and waters which would be prejudicial to their common use. Besides, there is both in natural and divine law that famous rule: ‘Whatsoever ye would that men should not do to you, do not ye even so to them’. Hence it follows, since navigation cannot harm any one except the navigator himself, it is only just that no one either can or ought to be interdicted therefrom, lest nature, free in her own realm, and least hurtful to herself, be found impeding the liberty of navigation, and thus offending against the accepted precept and rule that all things are supposed to be permitted which are not found expressly forbidden.[138] Besides, not only would it be contrary to natural law to wish to prevent such free navigation, but we are even bound to do the opposite, that is, bound to assist such navigation in whatever way we can, when it can be done without any prejudice to ourselves’.

After Vasquez had established his point by the help of many authorities both human and divine, he added:[139] ‘It appears then, from what has gone before that the opinion held by Johannes Faber, Angeli, Baldus, and Franciscus Balbus, whom we have cited above, is not to be trusted, because they think that places common by the law of nations, even if not open to acquisition by prescription, can nevertheless be acquired by custom; but this is entirely false, and

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quod omnino FALSVM est, eaque traditio CAECA ET NVBILA est, OMNIQVE RATIONIS LVMINE CARENS, legemque verbis non rebus imponens.[140a] In exemplis enim de Mari Hispanorum, LVSITANORVM, Venetorum, Genuensium, et reliquorum, constat consuetudine ius tale navigandi, et alios navigare prohibendi non magis acquiri quam praescriptione.[141a] Vtroque enim casu ut apparet, eadem est ratio. Et quia per iura et rationes supra relatas id esset contra naturalem aequitatem, nec ullam induceret utilitatem, sed solam laesionem, sicque ut lege expressa introduci non possent, ita etiam nec lege tacita, qualis est consuetudo.[142a] Et tempore id non iustificaretur, sed potius deterius et iniurius in dies fieret’.

Ostendit deinde ex prima terrarum occupatione posse populo ut venandi ius, ita piscandi in suo flumine competere, et postquam illa semel ab antiqua communione separata sunt, ita ut particularem applicationem admittant, praescriptione temporis eius, cuius initi memoria non exstet, quasi tacita populi concessione acquiri posse. Hoc autem per praescriptionem contingere, non per consuetudinem, quia solius aequirentis condicio melior fiat, reliquorum vero deterior. Et cum tria enumerasset quae requiruntur, ut ius proprium in flumine piscandi praescribatur:

‘Quid autem’, subdit, ‘quoad mare? Et in eo magis est

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is a teaching which is both obscure and vague, which lacks the faintest glimmer of reasonableness, and which sets up a law in word but not in fact.[140] For it is well established from the examples taken from the seas of the Spaniards, Portuguese, Venetians, Genoese, and others, that an exclusive right of navigation and a right of prohibiting others from navigation is no more to be acquired by custom than by prescription.[141] And it is apparent that the reason is the same in both cases. And since according to the laws and reasons adduced above this would be contrary to natural equity and would not bring benefit but only injury, therefore as it could not be introduced by an express law, neither could it be introduced by a tacit or implied law, and that is what custom is.[142] And far from justifying itself by any lapse of time, it rather becomes worse, and every day more injurious’.

Vasquez next shows that from the time of the earliest occupation of the earth every people possessed the right of hunting in its own territory, and of fishing in its own rivers. After those rights were once separated from the ancient community of rights in such a way that they admitted of particular attachments, they could be acquired by prescription based upon such an efflux of time that “the memory of its beginning does not exist,” as if by the tacit permission of a nation. This comes about, however, by prescription and not by custom, because only the condition of him who acquires is bettered, while that of all other persons is made worse. Then after Vasquez had enumerated three conditions which are requisite in order that a private right of fishing in a river may become a right by prescription, he continues as follows:

‘But what are we to say as regards the sea? There is

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quod etiam concursus istorum trium non sufficeret ad acquirendum ius. Ratio differentiae inter mare ex una parte, et terram et flumina ex altera, quia illo casu ut olim ita et hodie, et semper, tam quoad piscandum quam quoad navigandum mansit integrum ius gentium primaevum, neque umquam fuit a communione hominum separatum, et alicui, vel aliquibus applicatum. Posteriore autem casu, nempe in terra vel fluminibus aliud fuit, ut iam disseruimus’.

‘Sed quare ius gentium secundarium, ut eam separationem quoad terras et flumina facit, quoad mare facere desiit? respondeo, quia illo casu expediebat. Constat enim quod si multi venentur, aut piscentur in terra vel flumine, facile nemus feris, et flumen piscibus evacuatum redditur, id quod in mari non est. Item fluminum navigatio facile deterior fit et impeditur per aedificia, quod in mari non est. Item per aquaeductus facile evacuatur flumen, non ita in mari;[143a] ergo in utroque non est par ratio’.

‘Nec ad rem pertinet, quod supra diximus, communem esse usum aquarum, fontium etiam et fluminum. Nam intelligitur quoad bibendum et similia, quae fluminis dominium aut ius habenti vel minime vel levissime nocent.[144a] Minima enim in consideratione non sunt. Pro nostris sententiis facit, quia iniqua nullo tempore praescribuntur, et ideo lex iniqua nullo tempore praescribitur, aut iustificatur’. Mox: ‘Et

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more to say about it, because even the combination of the three conditions mentioned is not sufficient here for the acquisition of such a right. The reason for the difference between the sea on one hand and land and rivers on the other, is that in the case of the sea the same primitive right of nations regarding fishing and navigation which existed in the earliest times, still today exists undiminished and always will, and because that right was never separated from the community right of all mankind, and attached to any person or group of persons. But in the latter case, that of the land and rivers, it was different, as we have already set forth.

‘But why, it is asked, does the secondary law of nations which brings about this separation when we consider lands and rivers cease to operate in the same way when we consider the sea? I reply, because in the former case it was expedient and necessary. For every one admits that if a great many persons hunt on the land or fish in a river, the forest is easily exhausted of wild animals and the river of fish, but such a contingency is impossible in the case of the sea. Again, the navigation of rivers is easily lessened and impeded by constructions placed therein, but this is not true of the sea. Again, a river is easily emptied by means of aqueducts but the sea cannot be emptied by any such means.[143] Therefore there is not equal reason on both sides.

‘Neither does what we have said above about the common use of waters, springs, and rivers, apply in this case, for common use is recognized in them all for purposes of drinking and the like, such usages namely as do not injure at all or in the slightest degree him who owns a river or has some other right in one.[144] These are trifles for which we have no time. What makes for our contention is the fact that no lapse of time will give a prescriptive right to anything unjust. Therefore an unjust law is not capable of

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quae sunt impraescriptibilia ex legis dispositione, nec per mille annos praescriberentur’; quod innumeris doctorum testimoniis fulcit.[145a]

Nemo iam non videt, ad usum rei communis intercipiendum nullam quantivis temporis usurpationem prodesse. Cui adiungendum est etiam eorum qui dissentiunt auctoritatem huic quaestioni non posse accommodari. Illi enim de Mediterraneo loquuntur, nos de Oceano; illi de sinu, nos de immenso mari, quae in ratione occupationis plurimum differunt. Et quibus illi indulgent praescriptionem, illi litora mari continua possident, ut Veneti et Genuenses, quod de Lusitanis dici non posse modo patuit.

Immo et si prodesse posset tempus, ut quidam posse putant in publicis quae sunt, populi, tamen non ea adsunt quae necessario requiruntur. Primum enim docent omnes desiderari, ut is qui praescribit huiusmodi actum, eum exercuerit non longo dumtaxat tempore, sed memoriam excedente; deinde ut tanto tempore eundem actum nemo alius exercuerit, nisi concessione illius, vel clandestine; praeterea ut alios uti volentes prohibuerit, scientibus quidem et patientibus

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erecting a prescriptive right or of being justified by efflux of time’. A little farther on Vasquez says: ‘Things which are imprescriptible by the disposition of the law, may not become objects of prescription even after the lapse of a thousand years’. This statement he supports by countless citations from the jurists.[145]

Every one perceives that no usurpation no matter how long continued is competent to intercept the use of a _res communis_. And it must also be added, that the authority of those who hold dissenting opinions cannot possibly be applied to the question here at issue. For they are talking about the Mediterranean, we are talking about the Ocean; they speak of a gulf, we of the boundless sea; and from the point of view of occupation these are wholly different things. And too, those peoples, to whom the authorities just mentioned concede prescription, the Venetians and Genoese for example, possess a continuous shore line on the sea, but it is clear that not even that kind of possession can be claimed for the Portuguese.

Further, even if mere lapse of time, as some think, could establish a right by prescription over public property, still the conditions absolutely indispensable for the creation of such a right are in this case absent. The conditions demanded are these: first, all jurists teach that he who sets up a prescriptive right of this sort shall have been in actual possession not only for a considerable period, but from time immemorial; next, that during all that time no one else shall have exercised the same right of possession unless by permission of that possessor or clandestinely; besides that, it is necessary that he shall have prevented other persons wishing to use his possession from so doing, and that such measures be a matter of common knowledge and done by the suffrance of those concerned in the matter. For even if

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iis ad quos ea res pertinebat; nam etsi exercuisset semper, et quosdam exercere volentes prohibuisset semper, non tamen omnes, quia alii fuerunt prohibiti, alii vero libere exercuerunt, id quidem non sufficeret, ex Doctorum sententia.

Apparet autem debere haec omnia concurrere, tum quia praescriptioni publicarum rerum lex inimica est, tum ut videatur praescribens iure suo non autem communi usus, idque non interrupta possessione.

Cum autem tempus postulatur, cuius initi non exstet memoria, non semper sufficit, ut optimi interpretes ostendunt, probare saeculi lapsum; sed constare oportet famam rei a maioribus ad nos transmissam, ita ut nemo supersit qui contrarium viderit, aut audierit. Occasione rerum Africanarum in ulteriora primum Oceani inquirere coeperunt regnante Iohanne Lusitani,[146a] anno salutis millesimo quadringentesimo septuagesimo septimo. Viginti post annis sub Rege Emanuele promontorium Bonae spei praeternavigatum est, seriusque multo ventum Malaccam, et insulas remotiores, ad quas Batavi navigare coeperunt anno millesimo quingentesimo nonagesimo quinto, non dubie intra annum centesimum. Iam vero etiam eo quod intercessit tempore aliorum usurpatio adversus alios etiam omnes impedivit praescriptionem, Castellani ab anno millesimo quingentesimo decime nono possessionem Lusitanis maris circa Moluccas ambiguam

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he had continuously exercised his right of possession, and had always prevented from using his possession _some_ of those who wished to do so, but not _all_; then, because _some_ had been prevented from exercising and _others_ freely allowed to exercise that use, that kind of possession according to the opinion of the jurists, is not sufficient to establish a right by prescription.

It is clear therefore that all these conditions should be present, both because law is opposed to the prescription of public things, and in order that he who sets up such a prescription may seem to have used his own private right, not a public right, and that too by continuous possession.

Now, inasmuch as time beyond the period of the memory of man is demanded for the creation of a prescriptive right, it is not always sufficient, as the best commentators point out, to prove the lapse of a hundred years, but the tradition handed down to us by our ancestors ought to be undisputed, provided no one is left alive who has seen or heard anything to the contrary. It was during the reign of King John,[146] in the year of our Lord 1477, at the time of the wars in Africa, that the Portuguese began to push their discoveries first into the more distant parts of the Ocean. Twenty years later, during the reign of King Emmanuel, they rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and somewhat later yet, reached Malacca, and the islands beyond, the very islands, indeed, to which the Dutch began to sail in the year 1595, that is, well within a hundred years of the time that the Portuguese first arrived. And in truth even in that interval, the usurpation of rights there by other parties had interrupted the competence of everybody else to create a prescriptive right. For example, from the year 1519, the Spaniards rendered the possession by the Portuguese of the sea around the Moluccas a very uncertain one. Even the French and

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fecere. Galli etiam et Angli non clanculum, sed via aperta eo perruperunt. Praeterea accolae totius tractus Africani, aut Asiatici partem maris quisque sibi proximam piscando et navigando perpetuo usurparunt, numquam a Lusitanis prohibiti.

Conclusum igitur sit, ius nullum esse Lusitanis quo aliam quamvis gentem a navigatione Oceani ad Indos prohibeant.

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English made their way to those newly discovered places not secretly, but by force of arms. And besides these, the inhabitants of the entire coast of Africa and Asia constantly used for fishing and navigation that part of the sea nearest their own several coasts, and were never interdicted from such use by the Portuguese.

The conclusion of the whole matter therefore is that the Portuguese are in possession of no right whereby they may interdict to any nation whatsoever the navigation of the Ocean to the East Indies.

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CAPVT VIII

_Iure gentium inter quosvis liberam esse mercaturam_

Quod si dicant Lusitani cum Indis commercia exercendi ius quoddam proprium ad se pertinere, eisdem fere omnibus argumentis refellentur. Repetemus breviter et aptabimus.

Iure Gentium hoc introductum est, ut cunctis hominibus inter se libera esset negotiandi facultas, quae a nemine posset adimi.[147a] Et hoc, sicut post dominiorum distinctionem continuo necessarium fuit, ita originem videri potest antiquiorem habuisse. Subtiliter enim Aristoteles μεταβλητικὴν dixit, ἀναπλήρωσιν τῆς κατὰ φύσιν αὐταρκείας,[148a] hoc est, negotiatione suppleri id quod naturae deest, quo commode omnibus sufficiat. Oportet igitur communem esse iure gentium non tantum privative, sed et positive, ut dicunt magistri, sive affirmative.[149a] Quae autem illo modo sunt iuris gentium, mutari possunt: quae hoc modo, non possunt. Id ita intelligi potest.

Dederat natura omnia omnibus. Sed cum a rerum multarum usu, quas vita desiderat humana, locorum intervallo homines arcerentur, quia ut supra diximus, non omnia ubique

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