9 POLIsH ReVIeW OF INteRNAtIONAL ANd euROPeAN LAW 2013, Vol. 2, Issue 3 some RemaRks on The legal sTaTus of bays aCCoRdIng To ConVenTIons on law of The sea ConCluded undeR The auspICes of The unITed naTIons Tomasz Kamiński* 1. Introduction International law has always recognized the special position of bays, according to which certain kinds of bay were deemed to constitute part of a State’s internal waters because of their close connection with the coast. Notably, it may be noted that even Grotius decided to exclude bays from his concept of freedom of the seas together with inland seas, straits, and “…as large a sea as can be sighted from land”. Moreover in De Iure Belli et Pacis (1625), he added that a bay may be occupied by the state owning “…the land of its both sides unless the bay is so large in relation to the surrounding land mass that it cannot be considered a part of it” 1 . An important role in the evolution of legal rules governing bays was also played by John Selden’s concept, as presented in Mare Clausum (1618) which, in contrast to Grotius’s Mare Liberum (1609), stated that coastal states were allowed to possess and control the seas. * Ph.D, University of Warsaw, Institute of International Law Faculty 1 See, G. Westerman, Te Juridical Bay, Oxford 1987, at p. 45.