Alabama Claims
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During the American Civil War, Confederate States of America raiders (the most famous being the CSS Alabama) were built in Britain and did significant damage to Union naval forces. The United States claimed direct and collateral damage against Britain, the so-called Alabama Claims, and was awarded $15,500,000 by an international tribunal in 1871 as part of the Treaty of Washington.
The tribunal was comprised of representatives from Britain, the United States, Italy, Switzerland (Jakob Stämpfli), and Brazil. This established the principle of international arbitration, and launched a movement to codify international law with hopes for finding peaceful solutions to international disputes. The Alabama Claims was thus a precursor to the Hague Convention, the League of Nations, the World Court, and the United Nations.
In the particular case of the Alabama the United States claimed that England had violated neutrality by allowing the Alabama to be constructed, knowing that it would enter into service with the Confederacy. The British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, and Foreign Secretary Earl Russell had allowed the Alabama to put to sea from the shipyards of John Laird Sons and Company in Liverpool despite the explicit objections of the American Legation in London, and charges from the American Minister to England Charles Francis Adams that the ship was bound for the Confederacy. Though both the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary were thought to slightly favor the Confederacy at the time of Alabama's construction this position was against British public opinion. The subsequent release of the Alabama proved to be publicly embarassing when both were later forced to admit that the ship should not have been allowed to depart, despite the opinion of the British Chief Justice that her release did not violate neutrality.
Even so, the next year two ironclad warships under construction in Birkenhead and bound for the Confederacy were detained after their completion but before their launch. As a direct consequence of the flap over the Alabama rather than turn the ships over to Monsieur Bravay of Paris, who had ordered their construction as intermediary for Confederate actors, Palmerston instructed the British Admiralty to tender an offer for the purchase of the ships.de:Alabamafrage pl:Roszczenia Alabamy