Letter of Marque and Reprisal

[LibertiORDeth]

What exactly is this? It sounds like the US placing a (reward less) bounty on a certain person for the rest of the world to capture, based on what I read on Wikipedia. Is this right?

[powerofreason]

Its basically putting a price on someones head from what I understand. Imagine if the U.S. Gov't put a 50 billion dollar price on bin laden's head. Kill osama, become the world's richest man. That guy would be dead within a week lol.:p

[LibertiORDeth]

Its basically putting a price on someones head from what I understand. Imagine if the U.S. Gov't put a 50 billion dollar price on bin laden's head. Kill osama, become the world's richest man. That guy would be dead within a week lol.:p

Ok so it IS a bounty then, that makes more sense. I think a million would even do the trick :p

[SLSteven]

Its basically putting a price on someones head from what I understand. Imagine if the U.S. Gov't put a 50 billion dollar price on bin laden's head. Kill osama, become the world's richest man. That guy would be dead within a week lol.:p

That would be a lot less expensive than the war...

[aspiringconstitutionalist]

No, Letters of Marque and Reprisal are more than just a bounty. We already have bounties on Bin Laden's, et. al.'s heads. As I understand it, granting a LMR basically deputizes non-military American bounty hunters to penetrate into other countries, which they are currently not authorized to do. It'd be like Duane "The Dog" Chapman going after bin Laden instead of Andrew Luster. Actually, I think Chapman has petitioned the government to grant him a LMR to go after Bin Laden, but the government denied it.

[nate895]

Letters of Marque and Reprisal allow people to fight on the behalf of the United States outside of military and militia service. They also allow the holder to keep any legal spoils of war he may get along the way. Most were given out to private ship owners who became what amounted to legal pirates, the only difference being that holders of Letters of Marque (called privateers) could only attack countries at war with the issuer of the Letter and those countries/organizations designated in the Letter of Marque and Reprisal.

[nate895]

After looking it up, it appears to be against the Law of Nations to issue them. Though the United States never signed onto the Declaration of Paris, which was the treaty that outlawed them, the United States adhered to it anyway in the wars after the 1856 Declaration. While it wouldn't be against our law to issue them, it might give any nation who was harmed by someone with one of our Letters of Marque and Reprisal a Casus Belli against us.

[aspiringconstitutionalist]

Letters of Marque and Reprisal allow people to fight on the behalf of the United States outside of military and militia service. They also allow the holder to keep any legal spoils of war he may get along the way. Most were given out to private ship owners who became what amounted to legal pirates, the only difference being that holders of Letters of Marque (called privateers) could only attack countries at war with the issuer of the Letter and those countries/organizations designated in the Letter of Marque and Reprisal.

The funny part about this is that it assumes taking care of foreign enemies without using LMRs doesn't turn people into "legal pirates." *cough*Blackwater*cough*Halliburton*cough*

[Rhys]

blackwater could find and tea bag osama in an hour

[Kludge]

blackwater could find and tea bag osama in an hour

So could John McCain if he were to be elected.

[Rhys]

So could John McCain if he were to be elected.

i dunno.. he's pretty old and has health problems.

[Kludge]

McCain Vows To Replace Secret Service With His Own Bare Fists (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/mccain_vows_to_replace_secret)

[BarryDonegan]

After looking it up, it appears to be against the Law of Nations to issue them. Though the United States never signed onto the Declaration of Paris, which was the treaty that outlawed them, the United States adhered to it anyway in the wars after the 1856 Declaration. While it wouldn't be against our law to issue them, it might give any nation who was harmed by someone with one of our Letters of Marque and Reprisal a Casus Belli against us.

if you could call casus belli on the U.S. in practice, then half of the globe could do it.

the problem is, you can't actually have a casus belli against a nation that can wipe you off the map in seconds. you might legally get one in your own country, but "legal" is and always has been defined, not by adhering to archaic treaties, but selectively adhering to archaic treaties based on the interpretation of the entire body of all treaties and code, generally commercial code, defined by the persons with the best access to weaponry.

[aspiringconstitutionalist]

McCain Vows To Replace Secret Service With His Own Bare Fists (http://www.theonion.com/content/video/mccain_vows_to_replace_secret)

lmfao.

[nate895]

if you could call casus belli on the U.S. in practice, then half of the globe could do it.

the problem is, you can't actually have a casus belli against a nation that can wipe you off the map in seconds. you might legally get one in your own country, but "legal" is and always has been defined, not by adhering to archaic treaties, but selectively adhering to archaic treaties based on the interpretation of the entire body of all treaties and code, generally commercial code, defined by the persons with the best access to weaponry.

Many countries do have a Casus Belli against us, and could legally declare war right now, except it would be uneconomical because the US would trash them in a war one-on-one, and then you include allies and then it would be insanity to against the will of the United States. That is good for the American people, in a temporary sense, but it will eventually produce a backlash the same way British and Roman hegemony did. Pax Americana will eventually end, and I have a feeling it will be sooner rather than later.

[SeanEdwards]

There is a little more to the Letters of Marque. These instruments have a long history and established legal framework. For instance, individuals or business ventures that were granted these letters were required to post a substantial financial bond as surety of their lawful conduct. The privateers were required to follow all the same norms of warfare as the regular military forces. When one of these privateers made a capture, they were required to bring the capture back to one of the issuing country's ports and present the details of the capture before a prize court. If the privateer was deemed to have acted inapropriately, or captured or harmed an innocent party, then that financial bond they had posted could be turned over to the party that had been captured or harmed as compensation.