POSTLIMINIUM

Latin: In the civil law. A doctrine or fiction of the law by which the restoration of a person to any status or right formerly possessed by him was considered as relating back to the time of his original loss or deprivation; particularly in the case of one who, having been taken prisoner in war, and having escaped and returned to Rome, was regarded, by the aid of this fiction, as having never been abroad, and was thereby reinstated in all his rights. Inst 1, 12, 5. The term is also applied, in international law, to the recapture of property taken by an enemy, and its consequent restoration to its original owner. Postliminium fingit enm qui captus est in civitate semper fuisse. Postliminy feigns that he who has been captured has never left the state.