Legal Term: EMBARGO

Definition: maritime law. A proclamation, or order of state, usually issued in time of war, or threatened hostilities, prohibiting the departure of ships or goods from some, or all the ports of such state, until further order. 2 Wheat. 148. 2. The detention of ships by an embargo is such an injury to the owner as to entitle him to recover on a policy of insurance against "arrests or detainments." And whether the embargo be legally or illegally laid, the injury to the owner is the same, and the insurer is equally liable for the loss occasioned by it. Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 12, s. 5, 1 Kent, Com. 60 1 Bells Com. 517, 5th ed. 3. An embargo detaining a vessel at the port of departure, or in the course of the voyage, does not, of itself, work a dissolution of a charter party, or the contract with the seamen. It is only a temporary restraint imposed by authority for legitimate political purposes, which suspends, for a time, the performance of such contracts, and leaves the rights of parties untouched, 1 Bells Com. 517, 8 T. R. 259, 5 Johns. R. 308, 7 Mass. R. 325, 3 B. & P. 405-434, 4 East, R. 546-566.

Return to the Legalnut.com Law Dictionary