Search-warrant, an authority granted to an officer of police, empowering him to enter premises and to search for and seize property. In England such warrants seem to have been illegal at common law; they were first permitted by statute for seizing stolen goods in 1782. Under acts now in force a justice of the peace may grant warrants to search for stolen goods, false coin, forged bank-notes, &c.; he may also give a warrant to search any place where there is reasonable cause to suspect that an explosive substance or machine is concealed for a felonious purpose.
The right of searching ships on the high seas indisputably belongs to belligerents (see ENEMY, CONTRABAND, NEUTRALITY). The right claimed by England to search United States ships for British subjects on board, with a view to impress them into the British naval service, was one of the causes of war in 1812; and the right of search for slaves on board suspected slave-traders was repeatedly a source of difficulty. The case of the Trent (q.v.) in 1861 nearly led to war between Britain and the United States.
The proper officers have a right to search the persons of apprehended thieves, &c.; and custom-house officers are entitled to search for smuggled goods, not merely ships but all persons on board them or who land from them. But any person may insist, before being searched, on being taken before a magistrate or superior custom-house officer and raise the question whether there is reasonable suspicion that he has smuggled goods about him.