BLOCKADE

In international law. A marine investment or beleaguering of a town or harbor. A sort of circumvallation round a place by which all foreign connection and correspondence is, as far as human power can effect it, to be cut off. 1 C. Rob. Adm. 151. It is not necessary, however, that the place should be invested by land, as well as by sea, in order to constitute a legal block- kinds of circumstantial evidence of his hav- ing killed deer, although he was not found in the act of chasing or hunting. Manwood.

In International Law. The actual investment of a port or place by a hostile force fully competent, under ordinary circumstances, to cut off all com- munication therewith, so arranged or dis- posed as to be able to apply its force to every point of practicable access or ap- proach to the port or place so invested. See Deane, Blockades; Polson, Blockades; Westlake, Blockades. Nature and character. Blockades may be either military or commercial, or may partake of the nature of both. As military blockades they may partake of the nature of a land or land and sea investment of a besieged city or seaport, or they may con- sist of a masking of the enemy's fleet by another belligerent fleet in a port or anchor- age where commerce does not exist. As commercial blockades, they may consist of operations against an enemy's trade or revenue, either localized at a single im- portant seaport, or as a more comprehensive strategic operation, by which the entire sea frontier of an enemy is placed under block- ade; Snow, Lect. Int. Law 148. A block- ade, being an operation of war, any govern- ment, independent or de facto, whose rights as a belligerent are recognized, can insti- tute a blockade as an exercise of those rights. National sovereignty confers the right of declaring war; and the right which nations at war have of destroying or capturing each other's citizens, subjects, or goods, im- poses on neutral nations the obligation not to interfere with the exercise of this right within the rules prescribed by the law of nations. A declaration of a siege or block- ade is an act of sovereignty: 1 C. Rob. Adm. 146; but a direct déclaration by the sovereign authority of the besieging bellig- erent is not always requisite; particularly when the blockade is on a distant station; for its officers may have power, either ex- pressly or by implication, to institute such siege or blockade; 6 C. Rob. Adm. 367. In case of civil war, the government may blockade its own ports; Wheat. Int. Law 365; 3 Binn. 252; 3 Wheat. 365; 7 id. 306; 4 Cr. 272; 2 Black 635; 3 Scott 225;.24 Bost. L. Rep. 276, 335. The act of congress of July 13, 1861, prohibiting all commercial intercourse be- tween the loyal and the revolted states, was a mere municipal regulation, though familiarly called a blockade; 8 Ware 276. Efficacy. In international jurisprudence it is a well-settled principle that the block- ading force must be present and of sufficient force to be effective, and a mere notifica- tion of one belligerent that the port of the other is blockaded, sometimes termed a paper blockade, is not sufficient to establish a legal blockade. A blockade may be made effective by batteries on shore as well as by ships afloat, and, in case of inland ports, may be maintained by batteries command- ing the river or inlet by which it may be approached, supported by a naval force sufficient to warn off innocent and capture offending vessels attempting to enter; 2 Wall. 135. In 1856 the declaration of Paris prescribed blockades to be obligatory must be effective, that is to say, maintained by a sufficient force to shut out the access of the enemy's ships and other vessels in reality. The United States, although not a party to this declaration, has upheld the same doctrine since 1781, when, by ordi- nance of Congress, it was declared that there should be a number of vessels stationed near enough to the port to make the entry apparently dangerous; Journals of Congress, vol. vii. p. 186. By the con- vention of the Baltic Powers in 1780, and again in 1801, the same doctrine was pro- mulgated, and in 1871, by treaty between Italy and the United States, a clearer and more satisfactory definition of an effective blockade was agreed upon, as follows: "It is expressly declared that such places only shall be considered blockaded as shall be actually invested by naval forces capable of preventing the entrance of neutrals, and so stationed as to create an evident danger on their part to attempt it." The government of the United States has uniformly insisted that the blockade should be made effective by the presence of a com- petent force stationed and present at or near the entrance of the port; 1 Kent *145, and the authorities by him cited. And see 1 C. Rob. Adm. 80; 4 id. 66; 1 Act. Prize Cas. 64; and Lord Erskine's speech, 8th March, 1808, on the orders in council, 10 Cobbett, Parl. Deb. 949, 950. But "it is not an accidental absence of the blockading force, nor the circumstance of being blown off by wind (if the suspension and the reason of the suspension are known), that will be sufficient in law to remove a block- ade; " 1 C. Rob. Adm. 86, 154. But negli- gence or remissness on the part of the cruisers stationed to maintain the blockade may excuse persons, under certain circum- stances, for violating the blockade; 8 C. Rob. Adm. 156; 1 Act. Prize Cas. 59. Neutrals. To involve a neutral in the consequences of violating the blockade, it is indispensable that he should have due not

(137) livery merely, and any subsequent holder libel, i. e. a document containing blasphemay write in his name as indorsee. See mous matter. Steph. Cr. Dig. 97; Shortt - In international law, blockade is where two powers are at war, and one maintains such a naval force near the shore or ports of the other as to prevent access to them, or, as it is sometimes put, the vessels must be so disposed that there is an evident danger in entering the port or approaching the shore, notwithstanding that the blockading squadron 3. Blasphemous libel. It is also a may be accidentally absent for a time, misdemeanor to publish a blasphemouse. g. from being blown off by the wind.

The shutting up of a place by troops or ships, with the purpose of preventing ingress or egress, or the reception of supplies; as, the blockade of the ports of an enemy. An obstruction to passage. To raise a blockade. See under Raise.

To shut up, as a town or fortress, by investing it with troops or vessels or war for the purpose of preventing ingress or egress, or the introduction of supplies. See note under Blockade, n. "Blockaded the place by sea." Gilpin. Hence, to shut in so as to prevent egress. Till storm and driving ice blockade him there. Wordsworth. To obstruct entrance to or egress from. Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door. Pope.

The physical blocking or surrounding of a place, especially a port, in order to prevent commerce and traffic in or out. | Any form of formal isolation or inhibition of something, especially with the force of law or arms. | The ships or other forces used to effect a naval blockade. | Inhibition of the activity (function) of chemical messengers or their receptors, such as (often) receptor antagonism. | The act of preventing an opponent's pawn moving by placing a piece in front of it. | Synonym of prime.

To create a blockade against.