Foreign Trade

THE Trading with the Enemy Act has in modern economic warfare two basic objectives: to keep an enemy from using for his own purposes any property which he owns or controls, located within the United States; and to make that same property available for the purposes of the United States. Essentially simple as are these purposes, the Act perhaps because loosely and hastily drafted - has presented to the judiciary a collection of knotty problems which are probably not surpassed by those arising under any other statute of its size and weight. It is the aim of this article to discuss some of those problems. The first purpose, essentially defensive, has been accomplished principally by "freezing" controls. Freezing, unlike vesting, did not change the ownership of the property affected, but simply prohibited and declared void transfers not licensed by the Treasury.' The constitutionality of such prohibition and nullification of transfers of foreign-owned property is no longer open to question, and in general the courts...