The International Naval Conference and the Declaration of London

Although the Naval Conference which met at London, December 4, 1908, grew out of the Second Peace Conference it differed from the latter both in its composition and its object.In an historic session at the Hague, in June 1907, Germany and England proposed to the powers assembled to establish an international prize court. The two projects were referred to the first commission, and by the latter to a subcommission, which again appointed a committee of three, (Renault of France, Kriege of Germany, and Crowe of Great Britain) to combine them and draw up a project for submission to the commission.It is hard to realize the significance of the work of those three jurists, each as familiar with the practical transaction of international business as with the theory and underlying principles of international law. To them, primarily, is due the elaboration of the convention for the establishment of an international prize court. Nor should we forget that the American delegation at the Hague gave the project its vigorous support, so that it was presented to the conference in the name of four of the greatest maritime powers.