The Hallmoor

• Jurisdiction: Cuba
• Date: 11 February 1932
• Docket Number: Case No. 62
• Court: Obsolete Court (Cuba)

Cuba, Audencia de la Habana.

Case No. 62

The Hallmoor.

Treaties — Effect of — Treaty between Cuba and the United States concerning the Limits of Territorial Waters — Whether Binding upon Cuba in relation to Other States.

Territorial Waters — Breadth of Maritime Belt — The Law of Cuba — Collision with a British Vessel — Relevance of Treaty Concluded with the United States.

The Facts.—This was an action by the owners of a Cuban vessel against the owners of the Hallmoor, a British vessel, on account of damage suffered in a collision between the two vessels. The relevant Cuban statutes are referred to below. The trial Court held that it lacked jurisdiction, since the collision took place outside Cuban territorial waters. On appeal,

Held: that Cuban Courts had jurisdiction. The collision occurred within Cuban territorial waters. The only applicable legislation laying down limits of Cuban territorial waters was a Spanish law of May 7, 1880, which referred to “the littoral sea, or the maritime zone which girds the coasts or frontiers of the Spanish dominion, in all the breadth determined by international law.”1 However, there was no general agreement in international law as to the breadth of territorial waters.

Delivering the opinion of the Court, Fernandez, J., said: “Within the sphere of international law, the Republic of Cuba is not bound to England by any treaty governing territorial waters. Although it made with the United States the Treaty of 4 March, 1926,2 whose chief purpose on the part of the United States was to obtain greater effectiveness for its Volstead Act by preventing smuggling, in which Treaty it accepted three miles as the extent of territorial waters and expressed the intention of maintaining this limit, the obligatory force of that Treaty cannot extend to another purpose not expressed in the Treaty and to the benefit of other nations who are not signatories to it. …

“Since 1901, there have been in force in Cuba the present Customs Rules, in Art. 74 of which the extent of Cuban

territorial sea is fixed at 12 miles or 4 leagues from the coast.” The first section of that article provided that, in order to assure the collection of amounts due, the Customs Service shall keep the necessary watch over the coasts from the moment a boat enters the jurisdictional waters of the Island of Cuba. The second section provided expressly that the jurisdictional waters of Cuba extend to four leagues from the coast or from the keys [shoals or rocks]...