Safe-Conduct

A passport or permission from a neutral state to persons who are thus authorized to go and return in safety, and, sometimes, to carry away certain things in safety. According to common usage, the term "passport" is employed on ordinary occasions for the permission given to persons when there is no reason why they should not go where they please; and "safe-conmies, to go Into places where they could not go without danger unless thus authorized by the government. 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. Act Cong. April 30, 1790, i 27, punishes the violation of any safe-conduct 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.

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 Passports and safe-conducts are not binding upon the other belligerent; they may also be withdrawn by the belligerent granting them on grounds of military expediency, in which case the persons holding them must be allowed to withdraw in safety.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.

A passport or privilege the legal effects of war, during the time the permission; a passport or privilege subjects of a hostile power, permitting and to take with them certain effects, document granted to the master of a tection of the vessel in time of war.

In old English law. A license in the seal, to a foreigner, to come into the and depart without molestation, during

An assurance of safety, granted by the sovereign power, or commander-in-chief in time of war, guaranteeing that a person may pass through a portion of the territory without molestation.

comm. law, war. It is a passport or permission from a neutral state 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 neuof. Nat. 166; 2 Rob. R. 186; 4 Rob. App.; Reeve on Shipp. 271; 1 Kent, Com. 82.