Section 10 The Declaration of London
For incidental mentions of the Declaration in earlier sections see supra, pp. 22, 36, 39, 55, 58, 80, 90, 92, 148, 154, 155, 156, 158, 163, 164, 174, 181, 191, 193, 194, 195, 196.
See also my paper upon Proposed Changes in the Law of Naval Prize, read to the British Academy on May 31, 1911, Transactions, vol. v., of which a translation appeared in the Revue de Droit International, N.S., t. xiii, pp. 336-355.
Sir,—The questions put last night by Mr. M’Arthur need, perhaps, more fully considered answers than they received from Mr. McKinnon Wood.
With reference to the first answer, it may be worth while to point out that, in Art. 66 of the Declaration, the Powers undertake not only, as in the passage quoted, “to give the necessary instructions to their authorities and armed forces,” but also “to take the measures which may be proper for guaranteeing the application of the rules Contained in the Declaration by their Courts, and, in particular, by their Courts of Prize.” The “authentic commentary” upon the article in M. Renault’s “Report” explains that the measures in question “may vary in different countries, and may or may not require the intervention of the Legislature.”
The second answer lays down broadly that “the decisions of the British Prize Courts are founded on International Law, and not on municipal enactments.” Our Prize Courts have, no doubt, on most points, decided in accordance with International Law, in the sense of the principles generally followed by civilised nations; but, on not a few points, in accordance with the British view of what is, or ought to be, International Law, in opposition to views persistently maintained by other countries—e.g. with reference to the moment from which a blockade-runner becomes liable to capture. The fact is that, whatever grandiloquent language may have been judicially employed by Lord Stowell in a contrary sense, it will now hardly be denied that a Prize Court sits by national, not international, authority, and is bound to take the view of International Law which, if any, is prescribed to it by the constitutionally expressed will of its own Government.
The Declaration of London is in many ways a great achievement; but one is glad to learn from Mr. McKinnon Wood’s third answer that opportunity will be given for discussing all important points in connexion with its rules.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND
Oxford, March 30 (1909).