PRIZE BILL. (Hansard, 1 September 1939)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD MAUGHAM)
My Lords, in moving that this Bill be read a second time, may I be allowed to state, quite shortly, the object of it? The subject is familiar to all who are acquainted with the ordinary law with reference to prize with regard to maritime vessels. It is a Bill to apply the law of prize to aircraft, and it also makes minor Amendments in the existing statutes relating to prize. I may just tell your Lordships for information that the matter dealt with in Clause 1 was discussed during the last War. There has been no provision expressly for prize in the case of aircraft. A number of jurists considered the matter. It has been very carefully discussed, and it has been agreed that the law of prize with reference to ships should also be made to apply to aircraft. I should be pleased to give any information to any noble Lord who may desire it. I beg to move that the Bill be now read a second time.
Moved, That the Bill be now read 2^a.—(The Lord Chancellor.)

LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, doubtless the noble and learned Lord would be disappointed if I did not say a word about this Bill, and I would do anything rather than disappoint him. I only wish to ask one question and to make one short observation. Clause 1 is new, and I accept what the noble Lord has said about it. Clause 2, subsection (1) (c), enables a Prize Court to be established in any "country or territory in which for the time being His Majesty has jurisdiction in matters of prize." A short explanation is I think required there. The law, which I know we will observe, is that Prize Courts cannot be set up in neutral territory. They can only be set up in sovereign territory. I think the Lord Chancellor will uphold me there. These words bear a rather wide interpretation. That is my question, if I may respectfully put it to the noble and learned Lord. My general remark 930 is this, that for several centuries British Prize Courts have established a very high reputation for impartiality and good judgments, and I am perfectly confident that under the leadership of the noble Lord the Lord Chancellor and the Judges he appoints, if Prize Courts become necessary—and I dare say they will; I hope if circumstances arise they will be very lucrative indeed—these great traditions will be maintained. The noble and learned Lord and I have had one or two contests about the validity of certain ancient and established laws at sea, but I am quite sure that in present circumstances we see eye to eye.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
My Lords, I think I can give the noble Lord the information he requires. The matter is a little bit curious, and one has to go into it in order to understand it. According to the old practice, although a Court might by legislation passed in time of peace be created a Prize Court, it was impossible to take final executive action authorising a Prize Court to act as such until after war had broken out, whereupon it was necessary for His Majesty to issue a commission to the Admiralty authorising them to issue their warrants to the Courts required to act and for the Admiralty to issue their warrants accordingly. But by the Prize Courts Act, 1894, Section 2, a more convenient procedure was evolved by which it was provided that a dormant commission and dormant warrants could be issued notwithstanding the existence of peace and should come into force upon a proclamation by the Vice-Admiral that war had broken out. The latter procedure is, however, only available in the case of Courts in British possessions, and it was thought desirable by the persons who drafted this Bill—and rightly thought desirable—to make the practice of the Act of 1894 applicable also to places which were substantially under the régime of His Majesty's Government—that is to say, those Protectorates and Mandated Territories of which the Government have the Mandate, and any other territory where for the time being His Majesty's Government have jurisdiction in the matters of prize. That is, I think I am right in saying, the only object of what is stated in subsection (1) of Clause (2) to which the noble Lord referred. I feel sure that every effort will 931 be made to do what the noble Lord has suggested.