1
: a Roman legal doctrine whereby those captured by an enemy are regarded as having died freemen before capture to protect those claiming under them and whereby upon their return to the jurisdiction of Rome the captives regain their suspended property and civil rights
2
: the right or rule of international law under which when persons or things taken by an enemy in war come again under the control of their own state they as a general rule regain the rights belonging or relating to them before capture
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Merriam-Webster unabridged
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