[CHAPTER V. GREAT BRITAIN, RECENT ADMINISTRATION.]
[PART 1. PRIZE COURTS.]
In regard to the actual administration of these laws of prize distribution the decisions of prize courts in cases where the questions of distribution have arisen furnish the most satisfactory clue to the practice.
It may be well to devote a short space to a consideration of the organization of courts exercising prize jurisdiction.[1] As previously noted, in early times the admiralty jurisdiction, both administrative and judicial was placed in the charge of one man, the Lord High Admiral of England. There were it is true certain favored localities which claimed exemption from his jurisdiction. Such were the Cinque Ports which exercised coordinate jurisdiction through their Warden of the Cinque Ports. To this day the Cinque Ports retain this privilege[2] in some matters, especially questions of civil salvage but in prize matters, the Warden early lost his authority.
As time went on the Office of Lord High Admiral began to lose its character of a personal prerogative especially in the judicial field. The admiralty courts came under the authority of the king. They exercised instance and prize jurisdiction without distinction but in the middle of the seventeenth century the court began to have separate sittings for the two jurisdictions possibly because of the conflict between the Droits of the Duke of York as Lord High Admiral and of King Charles II.[3]
The administrative duties of the office of Lord High Admiral were also absorbed by the crown. Throughout the seventeenth century the office of Admiral was frequently put in commission. That is, the Lord High Admiral's jurisdiction was retaken by the king and commissioners were appointed by him to exercise the duties of the office. By act of 1690[4] express provision was made for thus disposing of the office of admiralty and for the most part it has been in commission since.[5] From this time, therefore, the organization of the department of admiralty and of admiralty courts has been directly under the control of the crown in parliament and acts providing for the institution of prize courts and the distribution of prize money have been passed by them generally before each war as previously indicated.[6]
The history of the admiralty courts of England has been the history of a struggle between them and the common law courts, each seeking to increase its jurisdiction at the expense of the other. Acts were passed in the reign of Richard II[7] limiting the power of the admiralty courts. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries their power underwent a constant decline, a fact greatly deplored by Sir Leoline Jenkins one of the judges of the seventeenth century. The common law courts even attempted to usurp their jurisdiction in prize matters. In 1781 however the exclusive jurisdiction of the admiralty in prize matters was recognized.[8] It was at this time that Lord Mansfield as Lord Chief Justice of England was beginning to correlate prize law by his famous decisions in appealed cases. But it was to Sir William Scott, afterwards Lord Stowell, Judge of the admiralty and prize court of England during the Napoleonic wars that the fame of the English Prize Court is largely due. The English Prize Court was at this time regarded almost as an international authority, as is witnessed by the fact that the United States through Ambassador Jay in 1794 requested of England an exposition of prize court procedure for the use of the United States. The reply of Sir William Scott and Sir J. Nicholl embodies nearly all the rules adopted by the United States.[9] Of Lord Stowell's work it has been said, "But his work as a judge of the Prize Court remains to this day distinct and conspicuous and no changes of international law can ever diminish his fame as the creator of a great body of English prize law the only complete and judicially made code in existence among European nations."[10] Through the nineteenth century the English High Court of admiralty under such judges as Dr. Stephen Lushington, Sir Robert Phillimore, and Sir Travers Twiss occupied a position of increasing importance. Its jurisdiction was greatly increased by a statute of 1840.[11] Among other things it was there given power to adjudicate booty of war in the same manner as prize. Its jurisdiction was further enlarged by acts of 1846,[12] 1854,[13] 1861,[14] and 1867.[15] By the Judicature acts of 1873[16] and 1875[17] the High Court of Admiralty was incorporated into the High Court of Justice as part of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty division of that court. The Supreme court of judicature act of 1891[18] defined the prize jurisdiction of the High Court.
Beginning with the establishment of a court in Jamaica in 1662[19] Vice Admiralty courts have been established in most of the colonies with jurisdiction similar to that of the courts of admiralty of England. By act of 1832[20] governors of colonies were made ex-officio vice admirals and the chief justices of the colonial courts, judges of the courts of vice admiralty. This act was amended in 1863[21] and in 1867.[22] By the Colonial courts of Admiralty act of 1890[23] all courts of law in British possessions having unlimited civil jurisdiction were created courts of admiralty with jurisdiction equal to that of the Admiralty division of the High court of Justice.