HIGH SEAS. As a term of admiralty law in England, the open, uninclosed waters of the ocean; that "part of the sea which lies not within the body of a It is used in contradistinction to bays, harbors, and arms of the sea inclosed within the lances terra% or nar row headlands or promontories. The high seas. or 'the main sea.' to use Sir Hale's syno nym. are' deemed within the exclusive jurisdie Hon of the Admiralty. up to high-water mark when the tide is full.
The term has been much considered by the judicial tribunals of the United States. and the Federal Supreme Court has held it applicable to the open. uninclosed waters of the Great Lakes. This conclusion. however. was not unanimous. According to the majority view, the Great Lakes possess every characteristic of seas. They are of large extent, wholly navigable by the largest vessels: they separate States in many instances, and in some instances constitute the boundary between independent nations: and their water-. after passing long distances, debotieh into the mean. We may as approximately designate the open, uninclosed waters of the lakes as the high of Ille as to desi!mate similar waters of the as the high -Pas of the ocean, or similar waters of the .Nlediterranetin as the high
seas of the Alediterrancan. .1 minority of the court vigorously dissent oil, insisting that legal usage load limited the term to the ocean, the common highway of all 11 bile the high seas are. as a rule, the common highway of all nations and not the subject of or monopoly by any 0111'. a State is entitled to a large measure of jurisdiction over that part of them lying within a marine league of its o6oast. This control is accorded by inter national law, in order that a State may protect itself by proper fiscal and defensive regulations. .1eeordingly, within this three-mile limit, the vessel of a friendly power may he hoarded and searched. on suspicion of being engaged in un lawful coninwrce. or of violating the revenue laws. It may even be chased beyond these terri torial waters and arrested searched their I imi ts. see IltattNc :sp..% 'oyrine. ERSY ;