1.1.234 to 1.1.238

Under the Law of Postliminium ,freemen were said to "return"; slaves to be "received"; and property to be "recovered". The animus revertendi was absolutely essential for the enjoyment of the rights which it conferred; if a prisoner of war was surrendered against his will, he was not entitled to them. Deserters were also excluded from participation in these advantages. As long as a father was in captivity, the exercise of paternal control remained in abeyance, dating from the moment of capture, but the right again vested at the time of release. Marriage was voidable at the option of the parties interested; hence its suspension might be indefinitely prolonged. As a captive was temporarily civiliter mortuus ,he could perform no legal act; but if he died while in the hands of the enemy his decease was presumed to have occurred in his own country, at the instant when he lost his liberty. The general principles of the jus postliminii as laid down by the Romans, are recognized by all writers on international law. "Per bellum capti, ubi manus hostium quocunqua modo evaserint, neque illis fide data sint obstricti, atque ad suos redierint, non modo pristinum statum, sed &omnia sua bona ac jura recuperent. Quod autem res attinet, quamdiu bellum durât, si hostibus iterum sint ereptæ sive per nos ipsos, sive per nostros cives aut milites, eas ad antiquos dominos redire par est, non immobiles tantum, sed &mobiles, modo liquido a nobis possint dignosci ." (Pufendorf, De Jure Naturæ et Gentium ,VIII, VI, 25.) "It is therefore with reason that movables or booty are excepted from the right of postliminium ,unless retaken from the enemy immediately after his capture of them; in which case, the proprietor neither finds a difficulty in recognising his effects, nor is presumed to have relinquished them." (Vattel, The Law of Nations ,III, XIV, Page 393.) "The right of postliminy is founded upon the duty of every State to protect the persons and property of its citizens against the operations of the enemy. When, therefore, a subject who has fallen into the hands of the enemy is rescued by his State, he is restored to his former rights and condition under his State. So, of the property of a subject recaptured from the enemy by his State; it is no more the property of the State than it was before it fell into the hands of the enemy; it must, therefore, be restored to its former owner. But if, by the well-established rules of public law, the title to the captured property has become vested in the enemy captor, the former owner cannot claim its restoration from the recaptor, because his original title has been extinguished." (Baker, First Steps in International Law, XXXV, Pages 364, 365.) —ed.