CONIFISCATION. The act by which the estate, goods or chattels1 of a person who has been guilty of some crime, or who is a public enemy, is declared to be forfeited2 for the benefit of the public treasury3. Domat, Droit Public, liv. 1, tit. 6, s. 2, n. 1. When property is forfeited as a punishment for the commission of crime, it is usually called a forfeiture4. 1 Bl. Com. 299.
2. It is a general rule that the property of the subjects of an enemy found in the country may be appropriated by the government, without notice, unless there be a treaty to the contrary. 1 Gallis. R. 563; 8 Dall. R. 199; N. Car. Cas. 79. It has been frequently provided by treaty that foreign subjects should be permitted to remain and continue their business, notwithstanding a rupture5 between the governments, so long as they conducted themselves innocently and when there was no such treaty, such a liberal permission has been announced in the very declaration of war. Vattel, liv. 3, c. 4, 63. Sir Michael Poster, (Discourses on High Treason, p. 185, 6, mentions several instances of such declarations by the king of Great Britain; and he says that aliens were thereby6 enabled to acquire personal chattels and to maintain actions for the recovery of their personal rights, in as full a manner as alien friends. 1 Kent, Coin. 57.
3. In the United States, the broad principle has been assumed that war gives to the sovereign full right to take the persons and confiscate7 the property of the enemy, wherever found. The mitigations of this rigid8 rule, which the policy of modern times has introduced into practice, will more or less affect the exercise of this right, but cannot impair9 the right itself. 8 Cranch, 122-3. Commercial nations have always considerable property in the possession of their neighbors: and when war breaks out the question, what shall be done with enemies property found in the country, is one rather of policy than of law, and is properly addressed to the consideration of the legislature, and not to courts of law. The strict right of confiscation10 exists in congress; and without a legislative11 act authorizing12 the confiscation of enemies' property, it cannot be condemned13. 8 Cranch, 128, 129. See Chit. Law of Nations, c. 3; Marten's Law of Nat. lib. 8, c. 3, s. 9; Burlamaqui, Princ. of Pol. Law, part 4, c. 7; Vattel, liv. 3, c. 4, 63.
4. The claim of a right to confiscate debts, contracted by inpiduals in time of peace, and which remain due to subjects of the enemy in time of war, rests very much upon the same principles as that concerning the enemy's tangible14 property, found in the country at the commencement of the war. But it is the universal practice to forbear to seize and confiscate debts and credits. 1 Kent, Com. 64, 5; vide 4 Cranch, R. 415 Charlt. 140; 2 Harr. John. 101, 112, 471 6 Cranch, R. 286; 7 Conn. R. 428: 2 Tayl. R. 115; 1 Day, R. 4; Kirby, R. 228, 291 C. N. 77, 492.
CONFLICT. The opposition15 or difference between two judicial16 jurisdictions18, when they both claim the right to decide a cause, or where they both declare their incompetency19. The first is called a positive conflict, and the, latter a negative conflict.
ConFLICT OF JURISDICTION17. The contest between two officers, who each claim to have cognizance of a particular case.
