Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/17

Rh applied to your enemy's commerce. This compulsion consists in two descriptions of measures.

(1) Blockading enemy's coasts and harbours.

(2) Seizing his goods at sea.

The first practice (blockading) has undergone a limitation by the practice of modern times and the Declaration of Paris.

Formerly an Order in Council declared certain ports or coasts blockaded, and all vessels found on the high seas bound for those ports or coasts were held to have broken the blockade, and were seized accordingly. According to the new rule (the IVth rule of the Declaration of Paris), a blockade to be valid must now be effective; that is, it must be effected by means of a blockading squadron off the particular blockaded coast or harbour, and must be so effective as to constitute a real danger to the vessels attempting to enter the ports in question. This new rule puts