Proposals for the creation of an international prize court had been made since the 18th century. On several occasions international commissions or arbitration tribunals were instituted for prize cases on a bilateral basis. The International Prize Court provided for by the present Convention has never been established because the Convention failed to secure any ratifications. The Court would have served as a court of appeals against judgments of national prize courts. Neutral Powers as well as neutral and enemy nationals would have been entitled to bring appeals. The debates at the Hague revealed that grave divergencies existed with regard to the rules of prize law which the Court would have had to apply. In order to arrive at an agreement on these rules a Naval Conference met in London in 1908 an 1909 and produced the Declaration of London. The fact that this Declaration has never been ratified proved to be fatal to the proposal for an International Prize Court.