Outlaw

An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the

A secondary meaning of outlaw is a person systematically avoiding capture by evasion and violence. These meanings are related and overlapping but not necessarily identical. A fugitive who is declared outside protection of law in one jurisdiction but who receives asylum and lives openly and obedient to local laws in another jurisdiction is an outlaw in the first meaning but not the second (one example being William John Bankes). A fugitive who remains formally entitled to a form of trial if captured alive but avoids capture because of the high risk of conviction and severe punishment if tried is an outlaw in the second sense but not the first (Sándor Rózsa was tried and sentenced merely to a term of imprisonment when captured).

In the common law of England, a "writ of outlawry" made the pronouncement Caput lupinum ("[Let his be] a wolf's head"), equating that person with a wolf in the eyes of the law. Not only was the subject deprived of all legal rights, being outside the "law", but others could kill him on sight as if he were a wolf or other wild animal.^{[citation needed]} Women were declared "waived" rather than outlawed, but it was effectively the same punishment.^[1]

Legal history

Ancient Rome

Among other forms of exile, Roman law included the penalty of aquae et ignis interdictio ("interdiction of water and fire"). Such people penalized were required to leave Roman territory and forfeit their property. If they returned, they were effectively outlaws; providing them the use of fire or water was illegal, and they could be killed at will without legal penalty.^[2]

The interdiction of water and fire was traditionally imposed by the

In English common law, an outlaw was a party who had defied the laws of the realm by such acts as ignoring a summons to court or fleeing instead of appearing to plead when charged with a crime.^[1] The earliest reference to outlawry in English legal texts appears in the 8th century.^[5]

Criminal

The term outlawry refers to the formal procedure of declaring someone an outlaw, i.e., putting him outside legal protection.

An outlaw might be killed with impunity, and it was not only lawful but meritorious to kill a thief fleeing from justice—to do so was not murder. A man who slew a thief was expected to declare the fact without delay; otherwise, the dead man's kindred might clear his name by their oath and require the slayer to pay weregild as for a true man.^[7]

By the rules of common law, a criminal outlaw did not need to be guilty of the crime for which he was an outlaw. If a man was accused of treason or

In the context of criminal law, outlawry faded out, not so much by legal changes as by the greater population density of the country, which made it harder for wanted fugitives to evade capture, and by the adoption of international extradition pacts.^{[citation needed]} It was obsolete when the offence was abolished in 1938.^[9][10][11] Outlawry was, however, a living practice as of 1855: in 1841, William John Bankes, who had previously been an MP for several different constituencies between 1810 and 1835, was outlawed by due process of law for absenting himself from trial for homosexuality and died in 1855 in Venice as an outlaw.

Civil

There was also a doctrine of civil outlawry. Civil outlawry did not carry the sentence of capital punishment. It was, however, imposed on defendants who fled or evaded justice when sued for civil actions like debts or torts. The punishments for civil outlawry were harsh, including confiscation of chattels (movable property) left behind by the outlaw.^[12]

In the civil context, outlawry became obsolete in civil procedure by reforms that no longer required summoned defendants to appear and plead. Still, the possibility of being declared an outlaw for derelictions of civil duty continued to exist in English law until 1879 and in Scots law until the late 1940s. Since then, failure to find the defendant and serve process is usually interpreted in favour of the plaintiff, and harsh penalties for mere nonappearance (merely presumed flight to escape justice) no longer apply. ^{[citation needed]}

In other countries

Outlawry also existed in other ancient legal codes, such as the ancient

There have been several instances in military and political conflicts throughout history whereby one side declares the other as being "illegal", notorious cases being the use of proscription in the civil wars of the Roman Republic.^{[citation needed]} In later times there was the notable case of Napoleon Bonaparte whom the Congress of Vienna, on 13 March 1815, declared had "deprived himself of the protection of the law".^[17]

In modern times, the government of the

Though the judgment of outlawry is now obsolete (even though it inspired the pro forma

Notes