Attainder

An attainder, in British law, is the ending of a person's civil rights after he has been sentenced to death or to outlawry, as an additional penalty. It was frequently imposed in cases of treason.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The ending, or "extinction" of a person's capacity to own property carried also the "corruption of blood" — meaning that his children could not inherit his wealth or titles — and the property of an attainted person became owned by the British Crown. Heirs who had lost their expected inheritance could petition the Crown for a reversal of the attainder; this was usually granted to those who had performed some service to the Crown, and did not always result in a complete return of the expected property.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The abuse of attainder as a means of garnering income for the Crown was much resented, and the use of bills of attainder was forbidden by American colonists in their fundamental law, the United States Constitution.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

British law: REDIRECT English law...

Civil rights: Civil rights are the protections and privileges of personal liberty given to all citizens by law. Civil rights are distinguished from "human rights" or "natural rights"; civil rights are rights that persons do have, while natural or human rights are rights that many scholars think that people shou...

Death: Death is the cessation of physical life in a living organism or the state of the organism after that event. In almost all societies, death has one or several symbols associated with it. Common symbols of death in Western cultures include the grim reaper and the color black; conversely, in certain Ea...