Droit d'aubaine

A rule by which all the property of a deceased foreigner, whether movable or Immovable, was confiscated to the use of the state, to the exclusion of his heirs, whether claiming at) intestuto or under a will of the deceased. Finally abolished in 1819. Boyd's Wheat. Int. Laws § S2. The word aubaine signifies hospes loci, perajrinus advena, a stranger. It is derived, according to some, from alibi, elsewhere, natus, born, from which the word albinus is said to be formed. Others, as Cujas, derive the word directly from advena, by which word aubains or strangers are designated in the capitularies of Charlemagne. See Du Cange; Tre Aoux, Diet.