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Subject Area: Law
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

§ 56.: Prohibition of emigration.— - Christopher G. Tiedeman, A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, vol. 1 [1900]

Edition used:

A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint (St. Louis: The F.H. Thomas Law Book Co., 1900). Vol. 1.

Part of: A Treatise on State and Federal Control of Persons and Property in the United States considered from both a Civil and Criminal Standpoint, 2 vols.

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§ 56.

Prohibition of emigration.—

Political economy teaches us that national disaster may ensue from an excessive depopulation of the country. When the population of a country is so small that its resources can not be developed, it is an evil which emigration in any large degree would render imminent; and the temptation would, under such circumstances, be great to prohibit and restrain the emigration to other lands, while the impulse would increase in proportion to the growth of the evil of depopulation. Has the State the right to prohibit emigration, and prevent it by the institution of the necessary police surveillance? It cannot be questioned that the State may deny the right of emigration to one who owes some immediate service to the State, as for example in the case of war when one has been drafted for the army, or where one under the laws of the country is bound to perform some immediate military service.1 But it would seem, with this exception, that the natural and unrestricted right of emigration would be recognized as a necessary consequence of the recognition of the right of expatriation. If expatriation is indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the right of emigration must be more essential; for expatriation necessarily involves emigration, although emigratiom may take place without expatriation. But this right of prohibition was once generally claimed and exercised and Russia still exercises the right.2

[1]The compulsory military service for four of the best years of a man’s life has been the chief moving cause of emigration of the Germans.

[2]Phillemore International Law, 348, 349.