Confiscation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Confiscation \Con`fis*ca"tion\, n. [L. confiscatio.]
     The act or process of taking property or condemning it to be
     taken, as forfeited to the public use.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The confiscations following a subdued rebellion.


                                                    --Hallam.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  confiscation
       n : seizure by the government [syn: {arrogation}]

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CONFISCATION. The act by which the estate, goods or chattels of a person 
  who has been guilty of some crime, or who is a public enemy, is declared to 
  be forfeited for the benefit of the public treasury. Domat, Droit Public, 
  liv. 1, tit. 6, s. 2, n. 1. When property is forfeited as a punishment for 
  the commission of crime, it is usually called a forfeiture. 1 Bl. Com. 299. 
       2. It is a general rule that the property of the subjects of an enemy 
  found in the country may be appropriated by the government, without notice, 
  unless there be a treaty to the contrary. 1 Gallis. R. 563; 8 Dall. R. 199; 
  N. Car. Cas. 79. It has been frequently provided by treaty that foreign 
  subjects should be permitted to remain and continue their business, 
  notwithstanding a rupture between the governments, so long as they conducted 
  themselves innocently and when there was no such treaty, such a liberal 
  permission has been announced in the very declaration of war. Vattel, liv. 
  3, c. 4, Sec. 63. Sir Michael Poster, (Discourses on High Treason, p. 185, 
  6, mentions several instances of such declarations by the king of Great 
  Britain; and he says that aliens were thereby enabled to acquire personal 
  chattels and to maintain actions for the recovery of their personal rights, 
  in as full a manner as alien friends. 1 Kent, Coin. 57. 
       3. In the United States, the broad principle has been assumed "that war 
  gives to the sovereign full right to take the persons and confiscate the 
  property of the enemy, wherever found. The mitigations of this rigid rule, 
  which the policy of modern times has introduced into practice, will more or 
  less affect the exercise of this right, but cannot impair the right itself." 
  8 Cranch, 122-3. Commercial nations have always considerable property in the 
  possession of their neighbors: and when war breaks out the question, what 
  shall be done with enemies property found in the country, is one rather of 
  policy than of law, and is properly addressed to the consideration of the 
  legislature, and not to courts of law. The strict right of confiscation 
  exists in congress; and without a legislative act authorizing the 
  confiscation of enemies' property, it cannot be condemned. 8 Cranch, 128, 
  129. See Chit. Law of Nations, c. 3; Marten's Law of Nat. lib. 8, c. 3, s. 
  9; Burlamaqui, Princ. of Pol. Law, part 4, c. 7; Vattel, liv. 3, c. 4, Sec. 
  63. 
       4. The claim of a right to confiscate debts, contracted by individuals 
  in time of peace, and which remain due to subjects of the enemy in time of 
  war, rests very much upon the same principles as that concerning the enemy's 
  tangible property, found in the country at the commencement of the war. But 
  it is the universal practice to forbear to seize and confiscate debts and 
  credits. 1 Kent, Com. 64, 5; vide 4 Cranch, R. 415 Charlt. 140; 2 Harr. & 
  John. 101, 112, 471 6 Cranch, R. 286; 7 Conn. R. 428: 2 Tayl. R. 115; 1 Day, 
  R. 4; Kirby, R. 228, 291 C. & N. 77, 492.