Search

RIGHT OF. In international law. The right existing in a belligerent to examine and inspect the papers of a neutral vessel at sea. On the continent of Europe this is called the "right of visit."

Dalloz, "Prises Maritimes," notes 104-111.

The right does not extend to examine the cargo, nor does it extend to a ship of war, it being strictly confined to the searching of merchant vessels. The exercise of the right is to prevent the commerce of contraband goods. Although frequently resisted by powerful neutral nations, yet this right appears now to be fixed beyond contravention. The penalty for violently resisting this right is the confiscation of the property so withheld from visitation. Unless in extreme cases of gross abuse of his right by a belligerent, the neutral has no right to resist a search.

1 Kent, Comm. 154; 2 Brown, Civ. & Adm. Law, 319.

The right of search — or rather of visitation— in time of peace, especially in its connection with the efforts of the British government for the suppression of the slave trade, has been the subject of much discussion (Wheaton, Right of Search; Life of General Cass [by Smith] cc. 25, 26; Webster, Works, vol. 6, 329, 335, 338), and the documents relating to this subject communicated to congress from time to time, and most of the works on international law, may be profitably examined by those who desire to trace the history and understand the merits of the questions involved in the proposed exercise of this right. See, also, Edinburgh Review, vol.

11, p. 9; Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. 35, p. 211; 3 Phillim.

Int. Law, Index, tit. "Visit and Search."