Visit
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
In international law, the right of visit or visitation is a claim that officers of a public ship of one nation may go on board a vessel sailing under the flag of another nation, to be assured of her national character, when the piratical character of the vessel is suspected. This right of visit is conceded for the sole purpose of ascertaining the real national character of a vessel sailing under suspicious circumstances, and is wholly distinct from the right of search.
See 1 Kent Com. 153, note,