PRIZE

Any thing captured by a belligerent using the right of war: in common language, only ships thus captured, with the property taken in them, are so called. Prizes taken in war are condemned by the proper judicature in the courts of the captors: such condemnation is held to divest the title of the proprietor and confer anew ownership. In order to give jurisdiction to a court of prize, it is deemed nece ary, by the law of nations, that the property captured should be in po e ion of the captors in their own ports, those of an ally, or of a neutral; but no belligerent power has a right to capture in the ports of a neutral country, or within a marine league of her shores; nor does a capture made then render the adjudication valid. Subject to capture are hostile property, i. e. the property of persons domiciled in a hostile country, and neutral property contraband of war. See Contraband. PROA, [s. 995]