Embargo

A proclamation or order of government, usually issued in time of war or threatened hostilities, prohibiting the departure of ships or goods from some or all ports until further order. Government order prohibiting commercial trade with individuals or businesses of other specified nations. Legal prohibition on commerce.

The temporary or permanent Sequestration of the property of individuals for the purposes of a government, e.g., to obtain vessels for the transport of troops, the owners being reimbursed for this forced service.

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EMBARGO, 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 Bell's 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 Bell's Com. 517; 8 T. R. 259; 5 Johns. R. 308; 7 Mass. R. 325, 3 B. & P. 405-434; 4 East, R. 546-566.