REPRISALS. The forcible taking by one nation of a thing which belonged to another, in return or satisfaction for an injury com mitted by the latter on the former. Vattel, b. 2, c. 18, s. 342 ; 1 Bla. Com. c. 7.
Positive reprisals consist in seizing the per sons and effects belonging to the other nation, in order to obtain satisfaction.
Negative reprisals take place when a na tion refuses to fulfil a perfect obligation which it has contracted, or to permit an other state to enjoy a right which it justly claims.
Special reprisals are such as are granted in times of peace to particular individuals who have suffered an injury from the citi zens or subjects of the other nation.
General reprisals take place by virtue of commissions delivered to officers and citi zens of the, aggrieved state, directing them to take the persons and property belonging to the offending state wherever found.
Where an individual is injured by a for eign state he must first apply to its courts, if possible, and it is only when refused re dress daere that his own government can claim to interfere. Similarly where the in jury is to a state, compensation should be de manded before recourse is had to reprisal. Risley, Law of War 57. An instance of re prisal occurred in December, 1897, when Ger many threatened bombardment at Hayti un less the government within eight hours salut ed the German flag and made compensation to an injured German subject. See LETTERS OF MARQUE.
Reprisals are made in two ways, either by embargo, in which case the act is that of the state, or by letters of marque and reprisals, in which case the act is that of the citizen, authorized by the government.
See 2 Brown, Civ. Law 334. Such letters are generally granted for a refusal to pay debts, for an unwarrantable suspension of treaty obligations, denial of evident justice, or a refusal to pay indemnity for losses. One of the last instances of a letter of reprisal was in 1778 when the King of France gave authority of reprisal to certain people whose vessels had been seized by the British gov ernment for carrying contraband of war ; Snow, Int. Law 76. Congress has the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. U. S. Const. art. 1, s. 8, cl. 11.
The property seized in making reprisals is preserved while there is any hope of ob taining satisfaction or justice ; as soon as that hope disappears, it is confiscated, and then the reprisal is complete ; Vattel, b. 2, c. 18, § 342. See Boyd's Wheat. Int. Law.
The term is now used in the sense of re taliation in general, and the act is directed not merely against property of the state or of its citizens, but against the citizens them selves, their liberty, and even their lives. 11 Opp. §§ 33-43.
While applied more strictly to acts falling short of actual war, the term also includes acts of retaliation in time of war done for the purpose of checking excesses committed by the enemy in violation of the laws of war. Spaight, War Rights on Land, 461-470.