Alien Enemy - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition alien-enemy

Definition :

Alien enemy, a subject of a nation which is at war with this country. A contract with him is void, Brandon v. Nesbitt, (1794) 6 TR 23, unless he have a safe conduct or be living in this country by licence of the Crown; and so is a contract with his wife, De Wahl v. Braune, (1856) 25 LJ Ex 343. Further, not only commercial intercourse but all intercourse with an alien enemy is prohibited by the common law; see The Hoop, (1799) 1 C Rob 196, where Sir William Scott described an alien enemy as 'totally ex lege'; The Cosmopolite, (1801) 4 C Rob 8; The Panariellos, (1915) 138 LT Journ 484. Nor can an alien enemy exercise a right of voting in respect of shares in an English company, Robson v. Premier Oil Co., 1915 (2) Ch 124, nor (unless within the realm by the King's licence) can he sue here during the war, though he remains liable to be sued, Porter v. Freudenbery, 1915 (1) KB 857. As to the Crown's right at common law to forfeit the private property of subjects of an enemy state, see In re Ferdinand, Ex-Tzar of Bulgaria, (1931) 1 Ch 107. The test of a person being an alien enemy is not his nationality but the place in which he resides or carries on business, Janson v. Driefontein, etc., Mines, 1902, AC 505. See the (English) Trading with Enemy Acts, 1914 to 1918, and the (English) Former Enemy Aliens (Disabilities Removal) Act, 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5, c. 43).