RIGHT OF, in international law, the right of belligerents, during war, to visit and search the vessels of neutrals for contraband of war. Some powerful nations have, at different times, refused to submit to this search; but all the high est authorities upon the law of nations acknowledge the right in time of war as resting on sound principles of public juris prudence, and upon the institutes and practices of all great maritime powers. The duty of self-preservation gives bellig erent nations this right; and as the law now stands, a neutral vessel refusing to be searched would from that proceeding alone be condemned as a lawful prize. The right of search, however, is confined to private merchant vessels, and does not apply to public ships of war. The exer cise of this right must also be conducted with due care and regard to the rights and safety of vessels. A neutral is bound not only to submit to search, but to have his vessel duly furnished with the neces sary documents to support her neutral character, the want of which is a strong presumptive evidence against the ship's neutrality, and the spoliation of them is still stronger presumption. There may be cases in which the master of a neutral ship may be warranted in defending him self against extreme violence threatened by a cruiser grossly abusing his commis sion; but, except in extreme cases, no merchant vessel has a right to say for itself, nor any armed vessel for it, that it will not submit to visitation or search, or be carried into a proximate court for judicial inquiry. If, on making the
search, the vessel be found employed in contraband trade, or in carrying enemies' property, or troops or dispatche,s, she is liable to be taken and brought in for adjudication before a prize-court. The above doctrine has been fully admitted in England; • but the Government of the United States has energetically refused to submit to the right assumed by the English of searching neutral vessels on the high seas for deserters, and other persons liable to military and naval serv ice. This question, yet not specifically settled, was one of the chief causes of the War of 1812. In 1914, 1915 and 1916, during the World War, American ship ping interests contested the right of Great Britain to stop neutral ships and take them into British ports. The con troversy was not settled when the United States entered the war.