With the ongoing conflict with Iran costing the United States tens of billions of dollars, the Department of Justice is considering a controversial way to claim valuable enemy property: wartime “prizes.” The concept isn’t new, as Bloomberg Law describes the proposal as a revival of a Civil War-era legal process known as “prize law.” This allows federal courts to determine whether anything captured during this war with Iran can ‘legally’ become US property.
If the DOJ really ends up bringing this system back, captured Iranian oil could potentially be solid income for the US Treasury. For the current administration, this sounds great on paper, but it comes with caveats. Holland and Knight attorney Allison Luzwick claims that this would be “a historical area of law that is not tested in modern times.”
After all, a lot has changed in both US and international law over the years. So, regressing to an older court for the sake of funding this war would cause issues, besides the natural pushback of the American people, including those from other countries. Not to mention, the question of whether this conflict justifies such lengths is also important.
A random tanker carrying oil isn’t solely Iranian property for the DOJ to take either. Plenty of other parties are involved too, including shipowners, neutral governments, cargo owners, and insurers. Add international maritime law into the mix, and seizing a tanker as a “prize” for the Treasury could make things quite messy.
If the US Enacts Prize Law, Other Countries Could Follow Suit
If the US starts taking whatever it wants from a country just because it’s at war with it, what’s stopping other countries from doing the same? It wouldn’t go down well if China started implementing this “prize” law against the US and taking American property only because a conflict is going on.
Critics on Reddit are skeptical of this whole ordeal and accuse the Trump administration of “bringing back privateering” as a means of income. Of course, that’s not what’s going on here, but to the average citizen, it’s not hard to see why someone would feel that way. Another question Redditors brought up was “At what point does Congress’ right to declare war even matter anymore?” as Congress has yet to formally say the US is at war with Iran.
In summary, the DOJ reportedly sees the prize court as a way to fund this unofficial war by capturing Iranian-linked oil. However, doing this would not only spark ire from people within the country, but from other foreign powers as well. It could be a solid short-term strategy to fill the Treasury, but it could also carry potentially grave consequences.
