high seas
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high seas
all parts of the sea that are not included in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a state (Geneva Convention on the High Seas 1958). The territorial sea was fixed as not exceeding 12 nautical miles by the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea. The UK has fixed its limit at 12 miles in the Territorial Sea Act 1987. States have very limited rights in relation to the high seas.HIGH SEAS. This term, which is frequently used in the laws of the United
States signifies the unenclosed waters of the ocean, and also those waters
on the sea coast which are without the boundaries of low water mark. 1 Gall.
R. 624; 5 Mason's R. 290; 1 Bl. Com. 110; 2 Haze. Adm. R. 398; Dunl. Adm.
Pr. 32, 33.
2. The Act of Congress of April 30 1790, s. 8, 1 Story'S L. U. S. 84,
enacts, that if any person shall commit upon the high seas, or in any river,
haven, basin, or bay, out of the jurisdiction of any particular state,
murder, &c., which, if committed within the body of a county, would, by the
laws of the United States, be punishable with death, every such offender,
being thereof convicted, shall suffer death and the trial of crimes
committed on the high seas, or in any place out of the jurisdiction of any
particular state, shall be in the district where the offender is
apprehended, or into which he may first be brought. See 4 Dall. R. 426; 3
Wheat. R. 336; 5 Wheat 184, 412; 3 W. C. C. R. 515; Serg. Const. Law, 334;
13 Am. Jur. 279 1 Mason, 147, 152; 1 Gallis. 624.