War booty
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War booty is a term used in international law to describe militarily useful property seized from an enemy in a time of war. Combatants are permitted to seize such property as is necessary to conduct a war, such as food, transportation, communications, weapons and fuel. The purpose of such a seizure may be to assist the combatant's own war effort, or to put the property beyond the enemy's use.
The law makes a clear distinction between war booty and common pillage of civilian property, such as the systematic Nazi plundering of art collections in occupied Europe and the Soviet Union's seizure of German cultural artifacts at the end of World War II. [1]
[edit] References
- ^ Cultural Property Law: A Practioner's Guide, eds. Sherry Hutt, PH.D., Caroline M Blanco, J.D., Walter E Stern, J.D., Stan N Harris, J.D., p. 154. American Bar Association, 2004
