Bynkershoek, Cornelius van (kôrnā'lis vän bing'kurs-hOOk) [key], 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.
