letters of marque

Letter of Marque of the First French Empire given to Captain Antoine Bollo, via the ship owner Dominique Malfino from Gena, owner of the Furet, a 15-tonne privateer, 27 February 1809.

Letter of Marque given to Captain Antoine Bollo, via the ship owner Dominique Malfino from Gena, owner of the Furet, a 15-tonne privateer, 27 February 1809.

A letter of marque and reprisal is an official warrant or commission from a government authorizing the designated agent to search, seize, or destroy specified assets or personnel belonging to a party which has committed some offense under the laws of nations against the assets or citizens of the issuing nation, and has usually been used to authorize private parties to raid and capture merchant shipping of an enemy nation.

The formal statement of the warrant is to authorize the agent to pass beyond the borders of the nation ("marque" or frontier), and there to search, seize, or destroy an enemy's vessel or fleet not necessarily a nation. It is considered a retaliatory measure short of a full declaration of war, and, by maintaining a rough proportionality, has been intended to justify the action to other nations, who might otherwise consider it an act of war or piracy. As with a domestic search, arrest, seizure, or death warrant, to be considered lawful it needs to have a certain degree of specificity to ensure that the agent does not exceed one's authority and the intent of the issuing authority.

In the past, a ship operating under a letter of marque and reprisal was privately owned and was called a "private man-of-war" or "privateer." The French sometimes used the term lettre de course for its letters of marque, giving rise to the term corsair.

Letters of Marque were abolished in France by the 1856 Declaration of Paris, which was an annex to the 1856 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Crimean War. The United States was one of the main states not to ratify the Declaration.

Letter of marque by nations

United Kingdom

Letters of marque were issued by England, after 1707 Great Britain, and after 1801 the United Kingdom until the signing of the Declaration of Paris in 1856. Famous recipients include Sir Francis Drake, Sir Henry Morgan, and William Kidd. To further illustrate the subtle difference between piracy and privateering, both Henry Morgan and William Kidd were later brought up on charges of piracy by England.

France

Letters of Marque were given by France in a very selective manner. Under Napoleon, they covered a six-month period in case a war should come to an end. This meant that captains left port with several Letters of Marque, since expeditions rarely lasted less than a year. Once he returned to harbour, the captain had to hand the letter over to the naval authorities, who destroyed it, creating a greater sense of accountability and rarity.

United States

Article 1 of the United States Constitution lists issuing letters of marque and reprisal in Section 8 as one of the enumerated powers of Congress. One question is whether Congress can issue such a letter to the President, as an authorization for limited offensive warlike operations outside the territory of the United States. In 2002, Douglas Kmiec, then dean of the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that:

Because the difference between a privateer and a pirate was a subtle (often invisible) one, in 1856 the issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal to private parties was banned for signatories of the Declaration of Paris. The United States was not a signatory to that Declaration and is not bound by it. During the 1861-65 American Civil War and the 1898 Spanish-American War, however, the United States issued statements that it would abide by the principles of the Declaration of Paris for the duration of the hostilities. (The Confederate States of America issued Letters of Marque and Reprisal during the Civil War.)

The issue of Marque and Reprisal was raised before Congress by Rep. Ron Paul of Texas after the September 11, 2001 attacks^[2], and again on July 21, 2007. Paul, defining the attacks as an act of "air piracy," introduced the Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001, which would have granted the president the authority to use Letters of Marque and Reprisal against the specific terrorists, instead of warring against a foreign state. Paul compared the terrorists to pirates in that they are difficult to fight by traditional military means.^[3]

Examples of some famous privateers include

• Alexander Godfrey
• Francis Drake

In science fiction

Science fiction writer Poul Anderson, in his book The Star Fox, depicts a future when Letters of marque are revived and space privateers fight across the light years.

In the science fiction book Marque and Reprisal by Elizabeth Moon the lead character Kylara Vatta is surprised to receive a Letter of Marque, and by the fact that her planet actually runs Privateers.

In the science fiction setting of Warhammer 40,000, the human Imperium employs so-called "Rogue Traders" to explore uncharted areas of space and pursue trade with human settlements outside the Imperium. The license to act as a Rogue Trader is referred to by many different names, one of which is the Letter of Marque.

See also

• Privateer
• reprisal
• commerce raiding

References

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