Act of indemnity

Definitions

  • Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Act of indemnity a statute passed for the protection of those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them to penalties.
    • Act of indemnity (Law) an act or law passed in order to relieve persons, especially in an official station, from some penalty to which they are liable in consequence of acting illegally, or, in case of ministers, in consequence of exceeding the limits of their strict constitutional powers. These acts also sometimes provide compensation for losses or damage, either incurred in the service of the government, or resulting from some public measure.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • Act of Indemnity an act or decree for the protection of public officers from any technical or legal penalties or liabilities they may have been compelled to incur
    • ***

Etymology

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Fr.,—L. indemnis, unharmed—in, not, damnum, loss, facĕre, to make.

Usage

In literature:

The two acts of indemnity in the Theodosian Code, l. ix.
"The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 3" by Edward Gibbon
Bacon got his commission and an Act of Indemnity for all chance political offenses.
"Pioneers of the Old South" by Mary Johnston
Invernahyle was afterwards pardoned under the Act of Indemnity.
"Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete" by Sir Walter Scott
And, if it was, a Bill of Indemnity for having acted without it was equally necessary.
"The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860" by Charles Duke Yonge
At his trial there arose a doubt whether the fact he had committed was not pardoned by the Act of Indemnity then lately granted.
"Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences" by Arthur L. Hayward
Yet of all the laws which a Legislature can pass an Act of Indemnity is the most likely to produce injustice.
"A Leap in the Dark" by A.V. Dicey
History is resorted to for other acts of indemnity in other times.
"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12)" by Edmund Burke
In the Act of Indemnity passed by Parliament the names of Whalley and Goffe were among those left out.
"Historic Tales, Vol. 1 (of 15)" by Charles Morris
He gave them an act of indemnity, and that was the last of his acts.
"The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12)" by Edmund Burke
After the establishment of the Protectorate an Act of Indemnity was passed for the Scottish people.
"Claverhouse" by Mowbray Morris
***

Related words