Safe-Conduct
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia · John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
A written permission given by a belligerent government, or one of its naval or military commanders, enabling an enemy subject to go to a particular place for a particular object.
Risley, Law of War 156.
A distinction is sometimes made between a passport, conferring a general permission to travel in the territory belonging to, or occupied by, the belligerent, and a safe-conduct, conferring permission upon an enemy subject or others to proceed to a particular place for a defined object.
II Opp. § 218.
Passports and safe-conducts are not binding upon the other belligerent; they may also be withdrawn by the belligerent granting them on grounds of military expediency, in which case the persons holding them must be allowed to withdraw in safety. They may be given for an indefinite period or for a limited time. The grantor of the safe-conduct tacitly pledges himself to protect the holder of it and to punish any person subject to his command who may violate it. Should the holder be detained beyond the time limited, by illness or some cause over which he has no control, he should still be protected, but if he otherwise exceeds the limited time, he is subject to the ordinary rules of war or to penalties, if such are imposed by the law of the place; Risley, L. of War 156. For a limited territory, they may be framed by a commander; but when general, they must proceed from the supreme authority. The name of an instrument given to the captain or master of a ship to proceed on a particular voyage: it usually contains his name and residence, the name, description, and destination of the ship, with such other matters as the practice of the place requires. This document is indispensably necessary for the safety of every neutral ship.
The act of Congress of April 30, 1790, s.
27, punishes the violation of any safe-condubt or passport granted under the authority of the United States, on conviction, with imprisonment, not exceeding three years, and a fine at the discretion of the court.
See Passport; 18 Viner, Abr. 272.