contraband

contraband, in the laws of war, goods that may not be shipped to a belligerent because they serve a military purpose.

The laws of war relating to contraband developed in the later European Middle Ages and have undergone continual development in order to meet the needs of the major maritime powers. In his De jure belli ac pacis (1625; On the Law of War and Peace), Hugo Grotius took note of a long-standing controversy in regard to what categories of cargo might be confiscated in the same way as weapons. He suggested a threefold classification, the forerunner of several different classifications enumerated from time to time with no visible effect on practice. Governments have issued proclamations listing the items they would seize, and these differed from country to country and from war to war.

From 1908 to 1909, however, 10 naval powers met in London to draw up an agreed code regarding belligerent restrictions on neutral trade. The resulting Declaration of London classified goods as (1) absolute contraband; (2) conditional contraband; and (3) free. The first class, military equipment, was subject to seizure on its way to any destination in enemy territory. The second class consisted of items such as food, clothing, and rolling stock, which were to be treated as contraband only if in transit to the government or armed forces of an enemy. The third class listed goods not subject to capture.

Though never ratified, the declaration was near enough to a general consensus to be provisionally adopted by both sides when World War I broke out in 1914. The demands of total war, however, resulted in such items as rubber, cotton, and soap being moved from the free list to absolute contraband. The declaration eventually became irrelevant and was explicitly discarded in 1916.

Apart from the difficulty of arriving at an agreed classification of contraband, a major problem was posed by maritime trade between neutrals. Goods shipped by one neutral to another were in principle free, but British and American practice in the 19th century, under the doctrine of “continuous voyage,” extended the right to seizure of goods that, though on their way to a neutral destination, were to be forwarded to an enemy. The trend was thus toward the right to deprive an enemy of any benefits of neutral trade. This was emphasized during World War I by the Allied imposition of quotas on European neutrals to prevent them from supplying the enemy from their own stocks, which they would then replace from foreign sources.

In 1939 proclamations issued by the Allied powers and by Germany again differentiated between absolute and conditional contraband. The only secure maritime trade left to neutrals was that covered by the naval certificates issued by belligerents to approved shippers and cargos. This practice, originated by the English in 1590 and used in World War I, was greatly extended during World War II. Its widespread adoption amounted to official assertion that, in time of war, trade by sea could be conducted only with the approval of belligerents.