International Law. A Treatise. Volume 2 (of 2): War and Neutrality. Second EditionOppenheim, L. (Lassa)
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International Law. A Treatise. Volume 2 (of 2): War and Neutrality. Second Edition
Oppenheim, L. (Lassa)
International law
award, of her value as prize salvage, no matter if the recapture was
made before or after the enemy Prize Court had confirmed the
capture.[397] Other States restore a recaptured vessel only when the
recapture was made within twenty-four hours[398] after the capture
occurred, or before the captured vessel was conducted into an enemy
port, or before she was condemned by an enemy Prize Court.
[Footnote 397: Article 30 of the Naval Prize Bill introduced in 1911
simply enacts that British merchantmen or goods captured by the enemy
and recaptured by a British man-of-war shall be restored to the owner by
a decree of the Prize Court.]
[Footnote 398: So, for instance, France; see Dupuis, Nos. 278-279.]
[Sidenote: Fate of Prize.]
§ 197. Through being captured and afterwards condemned by a Prize Court,
a captured enemy vessel and captured enemy goods become the property of
the belligerent whose forces made the capture. What becomes of the
prize after the condemnation is not for International, but for Municipal
Law to determine. A belligerent can hand the prize over to the officers
and crew who made the capture, or can keep her altogether for himself,
or can give a share to those who made the capture. As a rule, prizes are
sold after they are condemned, and the whole or a part of the net
proceeds is distributed among the officers and crew who made the
capture. For Great Britain this distribution is regulated by the "Royal
Proclamation as to Distribution of Prize Money" of August 3, 1886.[399]
There is no doubt whatever that, if a neutral subject buys a captured
ship after her condemnation, she may not be attacked and captured by the
belligerent to whose subject she formerly belonged, although, if she is
bought by an enemy subject and afterwards captured, she might be
restored[400] to her former owner.
[Footnote 399: See Holland, _Prize Law_, pp. 142-150.]
[Footnote 400: See above, § 196.]
[Sidenote: Vessels belonging to Subjects of Neutral States, but sailing
under Enemy Flag.]
§ 198. It has been already stated above in § 89 that merchantmen owned
by subjects of neutral States but sailing under enemy flag are vested
with enemy character. It is, therefore, evident that they may be
captured and condemned. As at present no non-littoral State has a
maritime flag, vessels belonging to subjects of such States are forced
to navigate under the flag of another State,[401] and they are,
therefore, in case of war exposed to capture.
[Footnote 401: See above, vol. I. § 261.]
[Sidenote: Effect of Sale of Enemy Vessels during War.]
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