The reaction of English and French (private) law to enemy persons in the First World War

Abstract

The study presents the solutions that the among the Western Powers, Great Britain and France, used to apply during the First World War in relation to citizens and business companies who came from the “enemy” countries and lived in the territory of the two countries, or had trade relations with them. The First World War shook both Western governments, as well as the public and the press, and this generated a clear antipathy towards the central powers. The first measures tried to determine who belonged to the category of the enemy and what should be done with them. For private individuals, internment seemed to be the best solution in this situation. However, they tried to act not only against natural persons, but also against foreign and hostile legal entities. Defining these groups, nevertheless, has turned out to be an extremely difficult task, for two reasons. First, it was not clear when a legal person counted as belonging to a particular nation, and second, military efforts often depended on help by these hostile foreigners. They tried to sideline legal (and natural) persons found to be hostile aliens from the national economy, as they saw fit on the grounds of national interest.