A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF WAR. Translated from the original Latin of BEING THE FIRST BOOK OF HIS QUESTIONES JURIS PUBLICI. WITH NOTES, BY PETER STEPHEN DU PONCEAU, Counsellor at Law in the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Ne fortior omnia possit.—OVID. PHILADELPHIA: Published by Farrand & Nicholas; also, by Farrand, Mallory & Co., Boston; District of Pennsylvania, to wit: Seal. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the eighth day of October, in the thirty fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1810, Farrand and Nicholas, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors in the words following, to wit: "A Treatise on the Law of War. Translated from the original Latin of Cornelius Van Bynkershoek. Being the first book of his Quæstiones Juris Publici. With Notes, by Peter Stephen Du Ponceau, Counsellor at Law in the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Ne fortior omnia possit. Ovid." In conformity to the act of the congress of the United States, intituled, “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act, entitled “An act supplementary to an act, entitled “ An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. An account of the life and writings of the author V xiii A brief alphabetical notice of the several writers and works on the civil law and the law of nations, not generally known, and which are quoted or referred to in this book xxiii A table of American and English cases, cited or referred to in the notes Table of reference, to enable the reader to find the passages quoted from the text of the civil law xxxi xxxiii Of the capture of movable property, and particularly of ships Of the recapture of movable property CHAPTER V. CHAPTER VI. Of the possession of immovables taken in war CHAPTER VII. Of the confiscation of the enemy's actions and credits CHAPTER VIII. Of hostilities in a neutral port or territory 27 36 •45 PREFACE. THE following translation was made several years ago for my own private use, and without any intention of ever publishing it. But Mr. Hall, the editor of the American Law Journal, having expressed a wish to insert it in that valuable periodical work, I freely consented to it, having no other idea at the time but that it should appear there as an anonymous performance. The manuscript was accordingly handed over to the printers of the Journal, and the first ten chapters were printed off, without undergoing any other corrections but such as occurred in revising the proof sheets, to which I subjoined a few short notes as I went along. But while I was engaged in that occupation, I felt my ancient attachment to a favourite author revive; the subject grew upon me; I gave an attentive revisal to the remainder of the manuscript, and added to it a more copious body of notes; and I now, with diffidence, venture to present the result of my labours in my name to my brethren of the American bar. It is, according to its first destination, published in and for the American Law Journal, and will be delivered to its subscribers as the third number of the third volume of that publication; but a sufficient number of copies will also be struck |