Trading with the Enemy Act 1939

The Trading with the Enemy Act 1939 (2 & 3 Geo. 6. c. 89) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes it a criminal offence to conduct trade with the enemy in wartime, with a penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment. The bill passed rapidly through Parliament in just two days, from 3 to 5 September 1939, and the Act was passed on 5 September 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War. It is still in force.

The act's provisions about the custody of enemy property were inspiration for the Israeli Absentee Property Regulations and other laws passed in 1948 about the use of the Palestinians' properties by the state of Israel. However, the 1939 act said that enemy property was only being confiscated "[w]ith a view to preventing the payment of money to enemies and of preserving enemy property in contemplation of arrangements to be made at the conclusion of peace..."

• Trading with the Enemy Act
• Trading with the Enemy Act 1914
• Daimler Co Ltd v Continental Tyre and Rubber Co (Great Britain) Ltd

• The full text of Trading with the Enemy Act, 1939 at Wikisource

• House of Lords 1st and 2nd readings 3 September 1939
• House of Commons 1st reading 3 September 1939
• House of Commons 2nd reading 4 September 1939
• House of Commons committee stage and 3rd reading 5 September 1939
• House of Lords 3rd reading 5 September 1939
• Royal assent reported in House of Lords 5 September 1939
• Royal assent reported in House of Commons 5 September 1939