7 of this Convention, in default of any relevant treaty between the Governments of the litigant parties, and of generally recognised rules of international law bearing upon the question at issue, the Court is to decide "in accordance with the general principles of justice and equity." It seems, however, to have been soon perceived that the proposal to institute a Court, unprovided with any fixed system of law by which to decide the cases which might be brought before it, could not well be entertained, and the Final Act of the Conference accordingly expresses a wish that "the preparation of a _Reglement_, relative to the laws and customs of maritime war, may be mentioned in the programme of the next Conference." Thereupon, without waiting for the meeting of a third Hague Conference, the British Government on February 27, 1908, addressed a circular to the great maritime Powers, which, after alluding to the impression gained "that the establishment of the International Prize Court would not meet with general acceptance so long as vagueness and uncertainty exist as to the principles which the Court, in dealing with appeals brought before it, would apply to questions of far-reaching importance, affecting naval policy and practice," went on to propose that another Conference should meet in London, in the autumn of the same year, "with the object of arriving at an agreement as to what are the generally recognised principles of international law within the meaning of paragraph 2 of Article 7 of the Convention, as to those matters wherein the practice of nations has varied, and of then formulating the rules which, in the absence of special treaty provisions applicable to a particular case, the Court should observe in dealing with appeals brought before it for decision....

It would be difficult, if not impossible, for H.M.Government to carry the legislation necessary to give effect to the Convention, unless they could assure both Houses of the British Parliament that some more definite understanding had been reached as to the rules by which the new Tribunal should be governed." In response to this invitation, delegates from ten principal maritime States assembled at the Foreign Office on December 4, 1908, and after discussing the topics to which their attention was directed, viz.: (1) Contraband; (2) Blockade; (3) Continuous voyage; (4) Destruction of neutral prizes; (5) Unneutral service; (6) Conversion of merchant vessels into warships on the high seas; (7) Transfer to a neutral flag; (8) Nationality or domicil, as the test of enemy property; signed on February 26, 1909, the Declaration of London.
The Convention No.xii.of 1907 and the Declaration of London of 1909 have alike failed to obtain ratification.

_Cf._ now the two immediately following sections, 9 and 10.
An ultimate Court of Appeal in cases of Prize seems now likely to be provided by the "Permanent Court of International Justice," proposed by the League of Nations in pursuance of Art.

14 of the Treaty of Versailles.

See also Art.