Note 71 — Chapter XVI · On Moderation with Respect to Things Excluded from the Right of Postliminium by the Law of Nations.

"The difficulty of recognising things of this nature, and the endless disputes, which would arise from the prosecution of the owner's claims to them, have been deemed motives of sufficient weight for the establishment of a contrary practice. It is therefore with reason, that moveables or booty are excepted from the right of postliminium, unless retaken from the enemy immediately after his capture of them; in which case the proprietor neither finds a difficulty in recognising his effects, nor is presumed to have relinquished them."—Vattel b. iii. ch. xiv. sect. 209.