The Legal Status of the Mende captives had to be established.

Per Atkin L.J. –

“International Law as such can confer no rights cognisable in the municipal courts. It is only in so far as the rules of International Law are recognised as included in the rules

of municipal law that they are allowed in municipal courts to give rise to rights and

obligations.”

CHUNG CHI CHEUNG –v. – THE KING

Per Lord Atkin:

“…international law has no validity save in so far as its principles are accepted and adopted by our own domestic law…The Courts acknowledge the existence of a body of rules which nations accept amongst themselves. On any judicial issue…they will treat it as incorporated into the domestic law, so far as it is not inconsistent with rules enacted by statutes or finally declared by their tribunals.”