prize court

American  

noun

1. a court whose function it is to adjudicate on prizes taken in war.

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prize court British  

noun

1. law a court having jurisdiction to determine how property captured at sea in wartime is to be distributed

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Etymology

Origin of prize court

An Americanism dating back to 1785–95

Example Sentences

Before the captor could take title to a vessel, he would have to bring the ship into port and have it condemned before a prize court, which would determine the lawfulness of the capture.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

The situation was complicated because England was at that time at war with the Netherlands whose government claimed the wreck as a prize, although inconsistently refusing to let it be adjudicated by a prize court.

From The Book of Buried Treasure Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc., which are sought for to this day by Paine, Ralph Delahaye

Two months later the Vanderbilt visited Angra Pequeña and captured there the British bark Saxon, having a large part of the wool on board, and sent her to a prize court in the United States.

From Cruise and Captures of the Alabama by Goodrich, Albert M.

She does not take her captures within the jurisdiction of a prize court; she carries no prize crew which she can put on board the prize she seizes.

From New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 April-September, 1915 by Various

The prize court not only overruled the objection, but condemned me to make restitution of all sums received in ransom for property taken at Maranham.

From Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, from Spanish and Portuguese Domination, Volume 2 by Dundonald, Thomas Cochrane, Earl of