Business Law and the Legal Environment 7th Edition by Jeffrey Beatty,Susan Samuelson

Exercise 2

During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the United States blockaded Cuba. It seized two commercial fishing vessels sailing under a Spanish flag off the Cuban coast. The crew knew nothing about the war and had no arms on board. U.S. officials auctioned off the captured vessels, but their owners protested, claiming that since ancient times countries at war had respected each other's commercial ships. There was no law or treaty on this matter. Do the ship owners have a valid claim?