Recent Innovations in Legal and Regulatory Concepts as to the Alien and his Property
The present totalitarian war and the emergency situations which preceded it and which are following in its wake have caused the creation of many new concepts which perhaps owe their basis to the theory that in the conduct of foreign affairs and in the conduct of war the executive arm of the government must be unhampered. In several recent cases the United States Supreme Court has held that under the Constitution the conduct of foreign relations is committed to the political departments of the Federal Government, and that the propriety of the exercise of that power is not open to judicial inquiry. However, it is now equally well settled that where a conflict of property rights under statutes and treaties is presented, the determination of these rights by the executive department is subject to review by the courts. The doctrine excluding from judicial inquiry the conduct of foreign relations by the political departments of the government has encouraged the creation of concepts which permeate the entire field relating to the alien and his property.