authorized
prize court. (147) The law of war did not, however, determine
They were recently discovered at the National Archives (Kew) among the thousands of volumes that make up the
prize court papers of the High Court of Admiralty.
If vessels were found to be carrying items on either of the contraband lists, or items that Britain deemed could be transferred to Germany, they would be escorted to a British port and held over until a
Prize Court could make a ruling on whether or not the cargo met the criteria of contraband.
The reach of the Sierra Leone
prize court would therefore extend as
Egypt declared war on Israel on May 14, 1948.(59) On the same day, Egypt closed the Suez Canal to all Israeli ships, issued lists of contraband, and instituted a
Prize Court in Alexandria.(60) Pursuant to this legislation, the Egyptian authorities exercised the well-established right(61) of visit, search, and seizure on all vessels flying the flag of third-party states that were en route to or coming from Israel, except Arab states.
Rudyard Kipling, as always, never ceases to surprise; there is the expected jingoism ('the Hun is at the gate'), and poems reflecting his own bereavement and loss of his son, but one sees also his eye for and sympathy for the neglected or forgotten, notably the poems about the submarine fleet ('Few
prize courts sit upon their claims').
The Royal Navy intercepted blockade runners, only to see British
Prize Courts refuse to "condemn" cargoes because ownership could not be proven, allowing the merchant vessels to resume passage even when carrying supplies the Kaisereich needed.
American merchant ships, desperate for employment and trade, were ending up in British Admiralty
Prize Courts in Bermuda, Jamaica and England.
Jerusalem -- PNN -- A proposal drafted earlier this month by the Israeli Defense Ministry's legal advisor Ahaz Benari would allow the setting up of special naval courts, called
prize courts, that could confiscate ships that attempt to break through Israel's naval blockade on Gaza.
The
prize courts controversy but unless there is a serious change of tack, next year's entries could be seen as farcical representations of all that is absurdly complicated and conceptual in art.