Prize Cases - The Issue Of Belligerency, The Captured Ships, Further Readings

war blockade court petitioners

Petitioners

Owners of four ships as claimants: Hiawatha, Crenshaw, Amy Warwick, and Brilliante

Respondent

United States

Petitioners' Claim

That the seizure of these ships for violation of blockade was illegal, because the war was a civil war, not an international war.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioners

Charles Edwards

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Justices for the Court

David Davis, Robert Cooper Grier (writing for the Court), Samuel Freeman Miller, Noah Haynes Swayne, James Moore Wayne

Justices Dissenting

John Catron, Nathan Clifford, Samuel Nelson, Roger Brooke Taney

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

10 March 1863

Decision

The Court ruled the president could insitute a wartime blockade without congressional approval.

Significance

The case determined that the Union government could pursue the naval war against the Confederacy as if it were an international war, using the rules of blockade.

Related Cases

Keppel v. Petersburg R. Co., 14 F.Cas. 357 (C.C.D.Va. 1868).
Holiday Inns, Inc. v. Aetna Ins. Co., 571 F.Supp. 1460 (S.D.N.Y. 1983).

Additional Topics

Prize Cases - The Issue Of Belligerency

The Prize Cases referred to the adjudication during the American Civil War of four captures of ships which had violated the blockade of the South by the Union Navy. The cases raised questions which could have worked against the Union war effort. The Supreme Court's ruling supported the Union position, establishing the right of a government to set up a blockade of its own ports during an insurrecti…

Prize Cases - The Captured Ships

The four ships, Hiawatha, Crenshaw, Amy Warwick, and Brilliante had all been condemned in lower courts after having been seized by the Union Navy. Hiawatha was a British barque captured in Hampton Roads in May of 1861. While the ship was loading a cargo of cotton for export, the captain had received word that the blockade was in effect. Lower courts sustained the seizure and forwarded the case to …

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