Letters Of Safe Conduct - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition letters-of-safe-conduct

Definition :

Letters of safe-conduct. No subject of a nation at war with us can, by the law of nations, come into the realm, nor can travel himself upon the high seas, or send his goods and merchandise from one place to another, without danger of being seized by our subjects, unless he has letters of safe-conduct, which, by drivers old statutes, must be granted under the Great Seal, and enrolled in Chancery, or else are of no effect-the sovereign being the best judge of such emergencies as may deserve exemption from the general law of arms, Chitty's Prerogatives of the Crown, p. 48, and Vattel by Chit. 416. But passports or licences from our ambassadors abroad are now more usually obtained, and are allowed to be of equal validity; see ALIEN ENEMY.Where the court has made an order for attachment or forfeiture of any property under sub-sec. (1), and such property is suspected to be in a contracting State, the court may issue a letter of request to a court or an authority in the contracting State for execution of such order. (The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974), s. 105C).