Act of Indemnity

In legal terms, an Act of Indemnity is a statute passed to protect people who have committed some illegal act which would otherwise cause them to be subjected to legal penalties. International treaties may contain articles that bind states to abide by similar terms which may involve the parties to the treaty passing domestic legislation to implement the indemnity laid out in the treaty.

International treaties

Domestic laws

United Kingdom and preceding states

The United Kingdom has three legal jurisdictions. Those acts passed during the Interregnum (1649–1660) were themselves rendered null and void with the Restoration of the monarchy in England, Scotland and Ireland in 1660.

England and Wales

Scotland

Ireland prior to 1921 and Northern Ireland

  • Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity, and Oblivion [for Ireland] 1664–1665?
  • Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998[1] see also Sentence Review Commission

Bangladesh

  • Indemnity Act, Bangladesh, which gave immunity from legal action to the persons involved in the assassination of president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

South Africa

  • Indemnity Act, 1961, which gave immunity to the government in relation to the Sharpeville massacre
  • Indemnity Act, 1977, which gave immunity to the government in relation to the Soweto uprising

Notes

  1. [Treaty of Westphalia (Act 2)] That there shall be on the one side and the other a perpetual Oblivion, Amnesty, or Pardon of all that has been committed since the beginning of these Troubles, ... that no body, under any pretext whatsoever, shall practice any Acts of Hostility, entertain any Enmity, or cause any Trouble to each other; neither as to Persons, Effects and Securities, ... that all ... shall be buried in eternal Oblivion.[2]

References

  1. Christodoulidis, Emilios A.; Veitch, Scott (2001), "Chapter III The Legal Politics of Amnesty", Lethe's Law: Justice, Law and Ethics in Reconciliation, Hart Publishing, p. 33, ISBN 9781841131092
  2. "Treaty of Westphalia excerpt" (PDF). history.ubc.ca. History Department of the University of British Columbia.
  3. "Treaty of Peace (Küçük Kaynarca), 1774". NUS – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. 22 November 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  4. "Acts of indemnity". api.parliament.uk. Hansard. 16 December 1974.
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