Everything about Letters Of Marque totally explained
A
letter of marque 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 foreign 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 doesn't 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 by the
1856 Declaration of Paris, which was an annex to the
1856 Treaty of Paris, which ended the
Crimean War.
United Kingdom and France
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.
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, alongside the power to declare war. One question is whether the marque and reprisal clause requires the
President to obtain such a letter from Congress as an authorization for limited offensive warlike operations outside the territory of the United States. The origins of this clause and the framers' intent fit well with modern notions of irregular warfare, supporting the view that the President's use of troops in foreign military operations, including covert paramilitary actions, is illegal absent Congress' authorization.
Some scholars, however, view this clause as contemplating action only by private contractors, and not as a limit on presidential power. For example, 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:
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 wasn't a signatory to that Declaration and isn't 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 only vessel to operate under a Letter of Marque issued by the United States Congress since the
War of 1812, was the airship
Resolute, operated by civilians to patrol the seas for
submarines during the
Second World War.
The issue of Marque and Reprisal was raised before Congress after the
September 11, 2001 attacks, and again on July 21, 2007 by congressman
Ron Paul. The attacks were defined as acts of "air piracy," and the
Marque and Reprisal Act of 2001 was introduced, 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. The terrorists were compared to pirates in that they're difficult to fight by traditional military means.
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