Since merchant ships were privately owned and operated, this decision allowed the United States to provision Britain without technically abrogating international restrictions on contraband.Īfter World War II the 1949 Geneva Convention tried to alter the rules of contraband and called for free passage of medical supplies and religious objects, as well as food, clothing, and tonics for children and maternity cases. In November 1941 Congress took a step toward entering the war on the side of the Allies when it partially repealed the Neutrality Act of 1939 and permitted American merchants to carry any cargo, including contraband, through war zones to and from Great Britain. On, when a German submarine torpedoed an American merchant ship allegedly carrying goods to British South Africa, the two nations began fighting an undeclared war in the Atlantic. The issue of contraband also shaped the course of World War II. The Germans' desperate attempt to break the British blockade through unrestricted submarine warfare hastened American entry into the war. (See Alabama Claims.) Contraband continued to be a significant legal issue throughout the twentieth century.ĭuring World War I Great Britain imposed broad categories of contraband on neutral shipping and virtually ended American trade with Germany. The tribunal held that, under international law, a neutral country must accept responsibility for any citizens who ship contraband to a belligerent nation, and Britain agreed to pay the United States $15.5 million in damages. In 1872 the Geneva Tribunal met to arbitrate a dispute between the two nations over damages perpetrated by British-built Confederate warships on Union shipping. The Court's decision did little to ease tensions between the British and Americans. Supreme Court later upheld the seizure of these blockade-running, British-owned ships. cruisers captured British ships transporting goods to the Confederacy and seized their cargo, whether it was contraband or not. Navy waged an unofficial war on France between 17 to defend its right to transport noncontraband cargoes. In the 1790s Britain and France tried to limit sea imports to and from each other and arbitrarily seized hundreds of American ships for contraband violations. The term has been important in United States military history since the late eighteenth century. CONTRABAND OF WAR, a term in international law that refers to a belligerent's right to prevent an enemy from receiving goods of value in waging war and to seize and condemn any cargo shipped by a neutral nation to a warring power, usually on the high seas.
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