By Lucien Morell

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Reports that the United States Department of Justice and the Pentagon are preparing to reactivate 19th-century "prize courts" mark a dangerous escalation in the collapse of international maritime norms.

By digging up a Civil War-era mechanism largely unused since World War II, Washington seeks to bypass slow civil asset forfeiture procedures and establish a fast-track legal pipeline to seize commercial vessels and liquidate their cargoes directly into the U.S. Treasury.

While current efforts target Iranian oil tankers to offset the staggering financial costs of Middle Eastern operations, the strategic implications reach far beyond a single adversary. This move sets a precedent that degrades freedom of navigation, lowers the threshold for state-sanctioned piracy, and threatens to unravel the delicate global trading system.

From Sanctions Enforcement to State-Sanctioned Seizure

For decades, the United States relied on civil forfeiture laws to interdict sanctioned shipping. While predatory, that framework required federal prosecutors to establish specific ties to illegal financing or sanctions violations in court, offering commercial shipowners at least a nominal legal defense.

Prize law eliminates those procedural guardrails. Historically derived from the era of privateering and naval blockades, prize courts allow a warring state’s navy to capture enemy or "neutral" commercial ships carrying contraband on the high seas and summarily condemn the property to convert it into state assets.

Replacing standard judicial oversight with war-prize proceedings transforms the high seas into an extraction zone, where economic coercion is backed by military confiscation.

The Slippery Slope to Expanding Targets

Washington's assurance that prize courts are a specialized tool reserved exclusively for adversary states like Iran carries zero credibility. Historically, emergency maritime measures enacted against one state rapidly expand to encompass anyone challenging American hegemony.

If Washington normalizes treating commercial shipping as legitimate spoils of war outside of a formally declared conflict, there is nothing to prevent this mechanism from being deployed against Russian energy fleets or Chinese commercial logistics.

Furthermore, because prize law traditionally applies to "neutral" vessels carrying goods deemed supportive of an adversary, any third-nation merchant vessel trading with an enemy of the United States could find its cargo impounded in a Texas federal court. Washington is effectively granting itself unilateral authority to declare any global trade route subject to high-seas confiscation.

The Danger of Reciprocal Escalation

By reviving archaic legal weapons, the United States is opening a Pandora’s box that invites immediate counter-measures from rival global powers. As legal scholars have pointed out, normalizing prize courts provides major maritime powers like China and Russia with perfect justification to adopt their own prize laws against Western shipping.

Should Beijing apply its own prize framework in the South China Sea or around Taiwan, American and neutral commercial ships navigating key Asian transit routes could face military interception and seizure under mirror legal doctrines. The result would not be a victory for U.S. power projection, but the sudden fragmentation of international waters into weaponized zones of control.

Destabilizing the Global Economy

The economic fallout from this legalised piracy will be borne entirely by ordinary people worldwide. Global supply chains rely on predictable legal protections, affordable maritime insurance, and unhindered navigation.

If commercial shipping companies face the constant threat of having their multi-million-dollar cargoes arbitrarily seized on international waters, maritime insurance rates will skyrocket. Shipping lines will be forced to detour around high-risk transit zones or pay exorbitant security premiums. These ballooning operational costs will inevitably filter down to consumers in the form of elevated energy prices, supply chain chokepoints, and persistent global inflation.

The Collapse of Freedom of Navigation

The United States long claimed to be the primary guarantor of global freedom of navigation. By turning to prize courts to fill its Treasury coffers, Washington has abandoned even the pretense of enforcing international maritime law.

Trading law enforcement for privateer-style confiscation destroys the legal framework governing global commerce. If state-sanctioned piracy becomes the new normal for global powers, the international community will face a fragmented, hyper-militarized ocean where rule of law is replaced entirely by rule of force.

*Lucien Morell is a Southeast Asia based geopolitical observer and analyst.*