RESTRAINT OF PRINCES AND RULERS. A phrase used in the exceptions to bills of lading, importing a limitation upon the liabil ity of a ship-owner under the contract. The words apply only to the ruling power of a country and not to pirates or any lawless power; 4 Term 783 ; they apply not only to hostile acts, but to those committed by the government of which the assured is a subject, as the seizure of a vessel for use as a fire ship ; 2 Ld. Raym. 840; or the wrongful seiz ure of an English ship and cargo by a British ship of war ; 2 E. & E. 160; L. R. 5 Q. B. 599 ; to a temporary embargo by a friendly government ; 3 B. & S. 163 ; 32 L. J. Q. B. 50; a detention of a neutral vessel in a blockaded port; 7 L. R. Q. B. 404; or a siege; L. R. 9 C. P. 518. A reasonable appre hension of capture will justify delay under the usual exception of restraint of princes, etc. ; L. R. 5 P. C. 301; L. R. 3 A. & E. 435; 1 Maule & S. 352.
It does not include a seizure of the cargo by an armed mob ; 4 Term 783, n. ; or a re
mote danger of capture; 10 East 530; nor, it seems, a restraint sanctioned by municipal law of the ship-owner's country ; 3 B. & S. 163 ; nor the process of a court of law ; 23 L. T. 251.
Where goods contraband of war were ship ped under a bill of lading containing this ex ception, it was held that the risk of the goods being seized amounted to a restraint of princ es ; [1896] 2 Q. B. 326.
Enforced obedience to lawfully prescribed quarantine regulations is a restraint of nat ural liberty of action devised by and proceed ing from the people, and detention at quaran tine is fairly included within an exception in a charter party which has reference to re straint of princes or rulers and people; The Progress, 50 Fed. 835, 2 C. C. A. 45, 3 U. S. App. 147.
See CHARTER PARTY ; PERILS OF THE SEA ; QUARANTINE.