Eggishorn, Suisse, September 16 (1907).
Sir,—The speech of the Prime Minister at the Guildhall contains a paragraph which will be read with a sense of relief by those who, like myself, have all along viewed with surprise and apprehension The Hague proposals for an international prize Court.
Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman admits that "it is desirable, and it may be essential, that, before legislation can be undertaken to make such a Court effective, the leading maritime nations should come to an agreement as to the rules regarding some of the more important subjects of warfare which are to be administered by the Court"; and his subsequent eulogy of the Court presupposes that it is provided with "a body of rules which has received the sanction of the great maritime Powers." What is said as to the necessary postponement of any legislation in the sense of The Hague Convention must, of course, apply a fortiori to the ratification of the Convention.
We have here, for the first time, an authoritative repudiation of the notion that fifteen gentlemen of mixed nationality composing an international prize Court, are to be let loose to "make law," in accordance with what may happen to be their conceptions of "justice and equity." It seems at last to be recognised that such a Court cannot be set to work unless, and until, the great maritime Powers shall have come to an agreement upon the rules of law which the Court is to administer.
I may add that it is surely too much to expect that the rules in question will be discussed by the Powers, to [190]use Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman's phrase, "without any political arrière pensêe." Compromise between opposing political interests must ever remain one of the most important factors in the development of the law of nations.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND
Oxford, November 11 (1907).
Although the establishment of an International Prize Court of Appeal was not one of the topics included in the programme of the Russian invitation; to a second Peace Conference, no objection was made to its being taken into consideration, when proposals to that effect were made by the British and American delegates to the Conference. The idea seems first to have been suggested by Hübner, who proposed to confer jurisdiction in cases of neutral prize on Courts composed of ministers or consuls, accredited by neutrals to the belligerents, together with commissioners appointed by the Sovereign of the captors or of the country to which the prize has been brought, as also, perhaps, "des personnes pleines de probité et de connaissances dans tout ce qui concerne les Loix des Nations et les Traités des Puissances modernes." The Court is to decide in accordance with treaties, "ou, à leur défaut, la loi universelle des nations." De la Saisie des Bâtiments neutres (1759), ii. pp. 45-61. The Institut de Droit International, after discussions extending over several years, accepted the principle of an International Court of Appeal, though only in combination with a complete scheme of prize law, in its Code des Prises maritimes, completed in 1887, section 100.