The Declaration of London of February 26, 1909

Two projects for the creation of an international prize court were laid before the Second Hague Peace Conference on the same day (June 22, 1907) one by the German and one by the British delegation. The United States at the time and France later warmly approved the proposed institution, and a joint project in the nature of a compromise was drafted and presented to the Conference by the four Powers, which, after much debate, prolonged discussion, opposition on the part of some delegations and hesitation on the part of others, was adopted with some amendments by the Conference and forms what is known as the Convention Relative to the Establishment of an International Prize Court of October 18,1907. Although signed by thirty-three Powers, the court contemplated by the convention has not been established by reason, it would seem, of objections raised by Great Britain to Article 7 of the convention, to remedy which a conference of leading maritime nations was called by Great Britain to agree upon important principles of law to be applied by the court, when constituted, in the decision of certain classes of prize cases. In this conference, known as the International Naval Conference, held at London from December 4, 1908, to February 26, 1909, representatives of Germany, the United States, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia, and Spain participated. An agreement, called the Declaration of London, dated February 26,1909, upon the principles of law to be applied by the proposed court, in accordance with Article 7 of the original convention, was reached. Like the original convention, it was also in the nature of a compromise. It met with the approval of the British Government, for it was signed by the delegates of that government acting under instructions, as is the wont of diplomatic conferences, and it seemed at the time that it removed the objections to the ratification of the original convention and to the establishment of the Prize Court in so far as Great Britain was concerned. The government considered it satisfactory and introduced a bill in both Houses of Parliament, modifying British practice in such a way as to meet the requirements of the Prize Court Convention, as modified by the Declaration of London. It passed the House of Commons, but failed in the House of Lords, owing to the unexpected, bitter and persistent opposition on the part of the public, so that the government has up to the spring of 1914 ratified neither the Hague Convention nor the Declaration of London. The signatories of the original convention and of the Declaration have waited, and are still waiting, for favorable action by Great Britain upon these two international documents, apparently unwilling to create the International Prize Court without the co-operation of Great Britain, and to bind themselves by the provisions of the Declaration framed by a conference called by Great Britain to meet British objections, unless it be ratified by Great Britain. The establishment of the Prize Court, therefore, is thus made to depend upon the action of Great Britain.