Asylum, Right Of

Asylum, Right Of (Fr. droit d’asile; Ger. Asylrecht), in international law, the right which a state possesses, by virtue of the principle that every independent state is sole master within its boundaries, of allowing fugitives from another country to enter or sojourn upon its territory. Extradition (q.v.) treaties are undertakings between states curtailing the exercise of the right of asylum in respect of refugees from justice, but the conditions therein laid down invariably show that nations regard the maintenance of this right of asylum as intimately connected with their right of independent action, however weak as states they may be, on their own soil. The neutral right to grant asylum to belligerent forces is now governed by articles 57, 58 and 59 of the regulations annexed to the Hague Convention of the 29th of July 1899, relating to the Laws and Customs of War on Land. (See War.)