CHAPTER VIII 
CAPTURE OF ENEMY PRIVATE PROPERTY AT SEA. 
THE DECLARATION OF PARIS 
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS 
Sec. 235. The General Rule of International Law. It is 
an established rule of international law that in general enemy 
private property captured at sea is liable to capture and con- 
demnation as good prize. The exceptions to the general rule so 
far as ships are concerned have been discussed in the preceding 
chapters. It remains now to consider the exceptions to the rule 
when the property consists of goods (les marchandises) captured 
at sea. As has already been pointed out, the Prize Courts 
during the World War applied the rule of confiscation to enemy 
goods captured in ports or in interior rivers when if they had 
been captured at sea they would have been liable to condem- 
nation.? 
As is well known, the United States has endeavored at various 
times to bring about an agreement among the Powers to exempt 
all enemy private property at sea, whether ships or goods, except 
contraband of war, from confiscation and thus bring the law of 
maritime capture more into harmony with the law governing cap- 
ture on land. But the efforts have been without success? By a 
treaty concluded between the United States and Italy on Feb- 
ruary 26, 1871 (still in force) ? it was provided that in the event 
of war between the high contracting parties the private property 
of their respective citizens and subjects, with the exception of 
contraband of war, should be exempt from capture or seizure on 
the high seas or elsewhere. The Italian merchant marine code 
! Supra, Secs. 147 f. 
? As to the present status of the law and practice, see an article by H. S. 
Quigley, entitled “The Immunity of Private Property from Capture at Sea,” 
2 Amer. Jour. of Int. Law, pp. 22 ff. 
3 Article XII. 
~~ 
£03