Britain announced Shanghai as the destination, where Japan could lodge its complaint in the appropriate admiralty court. In the video's legal interpretation, that court might have found that the merchantman failed to declare its voyage properly. The same interpretation treats Japan's seizure of a foreign-flagged vessel in waters considered international as unlawful. This distinction explains why Britain could defend the ship without claiming that its conduct had been blameless. Admiralty courts also offered states a respected third-party forum in place of unilateral force.
Chapter · 53:51-57:32
Flag jurisdiction and the admiralty-court remedy
In the video's legal interpretation, Japan may have had a valid complaint about the declared voyage, while the seizure violated flag-state jurisdiction in international waters.