Blockade - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition blockade

Definition :

Blockade [fr. bloccato, Ital., military term], the disposition of troops or armed vessels, so as to cut off all external communication with an enemy's port fortress, city, etc. The term is now generally applied to the blockade of a port by armed vessels. By the Declaration of Paris, Art. 4, blockades in order to be binding must be effective; that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. Accordingly, the two essential circumstances necessary to make a blockade good against neutrals are-(1) that there be actually stationed at the place a sufficient force to prevent the entry or exit of vessels; and (2) that the party violating it shall be proved to be aware of its existence. The effect of a guilty violation of blockade to the offending party, when captured, is the condemnation usually of both the ship and the cargo. Consult Hall's International Law.

Pacific blockades, i.e., blockades of the ports of a power with whom the blockading power is not at war, have been more than once practised in fact, as those of Greek ports in 1827 and 1897; but such blockades are unrecognized by international law.