Volume Ii Part 55 (2/2)

[Footnote 805: See U.S. Naval War Code, article 44.]

The Declaration of London, when ratified, will settle the controversy, for, according to article 20, a vessel is _in delicto_ so long only as she is pursued by a man-of-war of the blockading force, and she may no longer be captured if the pursuit is abandoned or if the blockade is raised. Stress must be laid on two points. Firstly, the pursuit must be carried out by a man-of-war belonging to the blockading force, and not by any other cruiser. Secondly, a blockade-breaking vessel is liable to capture so long as the pursuit lasts, whether or no she is still within the area of operations; even if for a while she has taken refuge in a neutral port, she may, on coming out, be captured, provided the captor is one of the men-of-war of the blockading force which pursued her and waited for her outside the port of refuge.[806]

[Footnote 806: See the Report of the Drafting Committee on article 20.]

[Sidenote: Penalty for Breach of Blockade.]

-- 390. Capture being effected, the blockade-runner must be sent to a port to be brought before a Prize Court. For this purpose the crew may be temporarily detained, as they will have to serve as witnesses. In former times the crew could be imprisoned, and it is said that even capital[807] punishment could have been p.r.o.nounced against them. But since the eighteenth century this practice of imprisoning the crew has been abandoned, and nowadays the crew may not even be made prisoners of war, but must be released as soon as the Prize Court has p.r.o.nounced its verdict.[808] The only penalty which may be p.r.o.nounced is confiscation of the vessel and the cargo. But the practice[809] of the several States has. .h.i.therto differed much concerning the penalty for breach of blockade. According to British and American practice, confiscation of both vessel and cargo used to take place in case the owners of the vessel were identical with those of the cargo. In case vessel and cargo had not the same owners, confiscation of both took place only when the cargo consisted of contraband of war or the owners knew of the blockade at the time the cargo was s.h.i.+pped for the blockaded port.[810] And it mattered not whether the captured vessel which carried the cargo had herself actually pa.s.sed through the blockaded line, or the breach of blockade was effected through a combined action of lighters and the vessel, the lighters pa.s.sing the line and discharging the cargo into the vessel near the line, or _vice versa_.[811] The cargo alone was confiscated according to the judgments of the American Prize Courts during the Civil War in the case of the _Springbok_ and in similar cases[812] when goods ultimately destined for a blockaded port were sent to a neutral port on a vessel whose owners were ignorant of this ulterior destination of the goods.

[Footnote 807: See Bynkershoek, _Quaest. jur. publ._ I. c. 11.]

[Footnote 808: See Calvo, V. ---- 2897-2898. U.S. Naval War Code, article 45.]

[Footnote 809: See Fauchille, _Blocus_, pp. 357-394: Gessner, pp.

210-214; Perels, -- 51, pp. 276-278.]

[Footnote 810: The _Mercurius_ (1798), 1 C. Rob. 80; the _Columbia_ (1799), 1 C. Rob. 154; the _Alexander_ (1801), 4 C. Rob. 93; the _Adonis_ (1804), 5 C. Rob. 256; the _Exchange_ (1808), Edwards, 39; the _Panaghia Rhomba_ (1858), 12 Moore, P.C. 168--See Phillimore, III. ---- 318-319.]

[Footnote 811: The _Maria_ (1805), 6 C Rob. 201.]

[Footnote 812: See above, -- 385 (4).]

The Declaration of London settles the matter by a very simple rule, for according to article 21 the penalty for blockade-breaking is condemnation of the vessel in all cases, and condemnation of the cargo also, unless the owner proves that at the time of the s.h.i.+pment of the goods the s.h.i.+pper _neither knew nor could have known_ of the intention of the vessel to break the blockade. The case in which the whole or part of the cargo consists of contraband, is not mentioned by article 21, but its condemnation is a matter of course.

CHAPTER IV

CONTRABAND

I

CONCEPTION OF CONTRABAND

Grotius, III. c. 1, -- 5--Bynkershoek, _Quaest. jur. publ._ I. cc, IX-XII--Vattel, III. ---- 111-113--Hall, ---- 236-247--Lawrence, ---- 253-259--Westlake, II. pp. 240-265--Maine, pp. 96-122--Manning, pp.

352-399--Phillimore, III. ---- 226-284--Twiss, II. ---- 121-151--Halleck, II. pp. 214-238--Taylor, ---- 653-666--Walker, ---- 73-75--Wharton, III.

---- 368-375--Moore, VII. ---- 1249--1263--Wheaton, ---- 476-508 --Bluntschli, ---- 801-814--Heffter, ---- 158-161--Geffcken in Holtzendorff, IV. pp. 713-731--Gareis, -- 89--Liszt, -- 42--Ullmann, ---- 193-194--Bonfils, No. 1537-1588'15--Despagnet, Nos. 705-715 _ter_ --Rivier, II pp. 416-423--Calvo, V. ---- 2708-2795--Fiore, III. Nos.

1591-1601, and Code, Nos. 1827-1835--Martens, II. -- 136--Kleen, I. ---- 70-102--Boeck, Nos. 606-659--Pillet, pp. 315-330--Gessner, pp.

70-144--Perels, ---- 44-46--Testa, pp. 201-220--Lawrence, _War_, pp.

140-174--Ortolan, II. pp. 165-213--Hautefeuille, II. pp. 69-172 --Dupuis, Nos. 199-230, and _Guerre_, Nos. 137-171--Bernsten, -- 9--Nippold, II. -- 35--Takahas.h.i.+, pp. 490-526--Holland, _Prize Law_, ---- 57-87--U.S. Naval War Code, articles 34-36--Heineccius, _De navibus ob vecturam vet.i.tarum mercium commissis dissertatio_ (1740)--Huebner, _De la saisie des batiments neutres_, 2 vols.

(1759)--Valin, _Traite des prises_, 2 vols. (1763)--Martens, _Essai sur les armateurs, les prises, et surtout les reprises_ (1795)--Lampredi, _Del commercio dei populi neutrali in tempo di guerra_ (1801)--Tetens, _Considerations sur les droits reciproques des puissances belligerantes et des puissances neutres sur mer_ (1805)--Pistoye et Duverdy, _Traite des prises maritimes_, 2 vols.

(1855)--Pratt, _The Law of Contraband of War_ (1856)--Moseley, _What is Contraband and what is not?_ (1861)--Upton, _The Law of Nations affecting Commerce during War_ (1863)--Lehmann, _Die Zufuhr von Kriegskonterbandewaren, etc._ (1877)--Kleen, _De contrebande de guerre et des transports interdits aux neutres_ (1893)--Vossen, _Die Konterbande des Krieges_ (1896)--Manceaux, _De la contrebande de guerre_ (1899)--Brochet, _De la contrebande de guerre_ (1900)--Hirsch, _Kriegskonterbande und verbotene Transporte in Kriegszeiten_ (1901)--Pincitore, _Il contrabbando di guerra_ (1902)--Remy, _Theorie de la continuaute du voyage en matiere de blocus et de contrebande de guerre_ (1902)--Knight, _Des etats neutres au point de vue de la contrebande de guerre_ (1903)--Wiegner, _Die Kriegskonterbande_ (1904)--Atherley-Jones, _Commerce in War_ (1906), pp. 1-91 and 253-283--Hold, _Die Kriegskonterbande_ (1907)--Hansemann, _Die Lehre von der einheitlichen Reise im Rechte der Blockade und Kriegskonterbande_ (1910)--Hirschmann, _Das internationale Prisenrecht_ (1912), ---- 24-30--Westlake in _R.I._ II. (1870), pp.

614-655--Kleen in _R.I._ XXV. (1893), pp. 7, 124, 209, 389, and XXVI.

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