Letters of marque and reprisal
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Letters of marque and reprisal constitutional
Government permission for private ships to attack and capture enemy vessels — a historic power Congress still nominally holds.
Technical: Art. I, §8, cl. 11 grants Congress power to issue letters of marque and reprisal, authorizing private parties (privateers) to seize the property or vessels of a foreign state — a form of state-sanctioned private reprisal.
Founding-era note: A common 18th-century instrument of naval warfare; largely obsolete after the 1856 Declaration of Paris, but never repealed from the Constitution.
A dictionary entry is reference: it describes how a term is used. It is not itself binding law. Why that matters →
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