THE PRIZE COURT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 307, 21 September 1908, Page 7

THE PRIZE COURT.

CONFERENCE ON LAWS OF MARITIME WAR. (ex telegraph—peess ASSOCIATION—COFTEIGnT.) London, September 18. Tho British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Edward Grey, proposes that tho International Conferenco oil tho laws of Maritime War should be hold on December, instead of in October. LAWS TO.PRECEDE THE COURT. The last Hague Conference adopted an International Prize Court of fifteen judges—a court of appeal which is to decide disputes relating to seizure of ships as carrying contraband of war. The law of contraband is so vaguo at present that such a court would havo enormous powers of interpretation; and Great Britain has taken up the stand that tho laws of contraband must be mado plain before she puts her great maritime interests in tho hands of the international court which is to administer those laws. In pursuance of this policy, in May Bfitain invited tho chief naval Powers to a_ conferenco in London in the autumn, to discuss rules for the blockage of contraband.

Meanwhile, the International Prizo Court lias not been ratified by Britain. "The Times" comments that tho defect of tho International Prize Court scheme is that there is at present no universally recognised laws of maritime war for the Court to apply. "If such an important chapter of the law which that Court is to administer is too bad and too vague for our adoption, wo cannot rationally or consistently entrust a tribunal of foreign jurists with the function of interpreting and 'making' it as they please, in accordance with the 'principles of justice and equity.'"