INFRA PRAESIDIA

infra praesidia (in-fr<<schwa>> pr<<schwa>>-sid-ee-<<schwa>>). [Latin “within the defenses”] Hist. The international-law doctrine that someone who captures goods will be considered the owner of the goods if they are brought completely within the captor’s power. • This term is a corruption of the Roman-law term intra praesidia, which referred to goods or persons taken by an enemy during war. Under the principle of postliminium, the captured person’s rights or goods were restored to prewar status when the captured person returned. See POSTLIMINIUM.

“In war, when those who are our enemies have captured someone on our side and have taken him into their own lines [intra praesidia]; for if during the same war he returns he has postliminium, that is, all his rights are restored to him just as if he had not been captured by the enemy.” Digest of Justinian 49.15.5.1 (Pomponius, Quintus Mucius 37).

[Blacks Law 8th]