Legal Term: HOSTILITY

Definition: A state of open enmity; open war. Wolff, Dr. de la Rat.1191.Hostility, as it regards individuals, may be permanent or temporary; it is permanent when the individual is a citizen or subject of the government at war, and temporary when he happens to be domiciliated or resident in the country of one of the belligerents; in this latter case the individual may throw off the national character he has thus acquired by residence, when he puts himself in motion, bona fide, to quit the country sine animo revertendi. 3 Rob. Adm. Rep. 12; 3 Wheat. R. 14.

2. There may be a hostile character merely as to commercial purposes, and hostility may attach only to the person as a temporary enemy, or it may attach only to the property of a particular description. This hostile character in a commercial view, or one limited to certain intents and purposes only, will attach in, consequence of having possessions in the territory of the enemy, or by maintaining a commercial establishment there, or by a personal residence, or, by particular modes of traffic, as by sailing under the enemys flag of passport. 9 Cranch, 191 5 Rob. Adm. Rep. 21, 161; 1 Kent Com. 73; Wesk. on Ins. h. t.; Chit. Law of Nat. Index, h. t.

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