Bynkershoek, Cornelius Van
Related Category: Law: Biographies
(kôrnā´lĭs vän bĭng´kərs-h
k), 1673–1743, Dutch writer on international law. His
De dominio maris [on the rule of the seas] (1702, tr. 1923) is a classic on maritime law, and he also wrote on diplomatic rights and, in
Quaestiones juris publici [questions of public law] (1737), on public law. It was Bynkershoek who first proposed the “three-mile limit” rule, which states that a nation may claim sovereignty over territorial waters to a distance of 3 mi (4.8 km) from shore.
