PRIZE, property taken from an enemy at sea, the law as to which is regulated by the general law of nations. As between the belligerent powers themselves, the property in a ship or other thing captured passes at once, by the mere taking itself, to the captor. But the thing captured may be pureletsed from the captor by a person belonging to a neutral state, or it may be recaptured. It becomes therefore neces sary, as between the original owner and such purchaser, or between the original owner and the recaptur, to lay down some rule for deter mining at what time and under what circumstances the thing captured becomes prize, so that the property in it passes to the captor for all purposes. The law of nations upon this point was very vague and unsettled. It used to be said that property was not devested by capture until after possession had been retained twenty-four hours, or until the prize had been taken infra pr.esiclia; or again, until the epee
recuperandi was gone. The present rule is thus expressed by Lord Stowell :—" By the general practice of the law of nations a sentence of condemnation is at present deemed generally necessary, and a neutral purchaser in Europe during war looks to the legal sentence of con demnation as one of the title-deeds of a ship, if he buys a prize vessel" Sentence of condemnation, that is, sentence that the thing captured is prize, and that consequently the property of the original owner in it is entirely devested, must be pronounced by a court of the capturiug power duly constituted according to the law of nations. The prize court of the captor may sit in the territory of an ally, but not in that of a neutral. Questions of prize are by the English law disposed of in the courts of Admiralty. [ADMIRALTY.] (45 Gee. 111. c. 72.)