In another case, he says : "It is to be recollected that this is a court of the Law of Nations, though sitting here under the authority of the King of Great Britain. It belongs to other nations as well to our own ; and what foreigners have a /ight to demand from it, is the administra tion of the Law of Nations simply, and ex clusively of the introduction of principles borrowed from our own municipal jurispru dence, to which it is well known they have at all times expressed no inconsiderable re luctance." 6 id. 349.
There are obvious objections to the sys tem of national prize courts. Although in theory they apply international law to cases coming before them, they are in fact influ enced by the municipal laws of their own country. In consequence, their decisions have often given rise to controversies, espe cially between the belligerent and neutral states. In 1877, the Institute of Internation al Law proposed a reform of the system by the establishment of a court of five judges, two to be appointed by the belligerents and three by neutral powers. At the Second Hague Conference a Convention Relative to the Establishment of an International Prize Court was adopted, consisting of 57 articles, providing for the jurisdiction and constitu tion of the court and the procedure to be fol lowed by it. The international court is a
court of appeal, so that jurisdiction in the first instance is still to be exercised by the prize courts of the belligerent captor. A number of states refused to sign the Con vention, while others objected to the consti tution of the court. As it has not yet been generally ratified, its fate is still in doubt. Higgins, The Hague Peace Conferences, 407 444.
Nevertheless, British prize courts have at times enforced doctrines of prize law which have been vigorously attacked by other gov ernments. The doctrine of "continuous voy ages" as applied by the British courts to contraband, holding that a vessel is liable to condemnation, even if bound for a neutral port, if it be shown that the vessel is to go thence with the same cargo to an enemy port, is condemned by the majority of continental writers. Likewise the application of the doc trine of "continuous voyages" to blockade, made by the American prize courts during the civil war, has called forth protests from British as well as continental writers. 2 Opp. § 401.