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Abolitionism: Unterschied zwischen den Versionen
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In pre-modern times there was an institution called "abolitio". In Roman law, the ''abolitio publica'' (as opposed to the more technical and individual ''abolitio privata'') was comparable to a general amnesty: people who were subject to the criminal justice system were suddenly set free. Whereas an amnesty usually refers to convicts who already had been handed their verdicts, an abolition referred (and refers) to people who are accused of a crime, who are at some stage of the criminal process, but who have not yet been sentenced. In other words: an abolition is an irregular end of a criminal procedure at the will of an (absolute) ruler who exercises his sovereign right to clemency even before a judgment has been reached. The ''abolitio publica'' meant something like "wiping out a criminal prosecution against somebody before a verdict was reached". Ever since the times of the Roman Empire, rulers used some joyful occasions regarding their own rule (a birthday, a crown jubilee, the birth of a long-awaited heir etc.) to temper justice with mercy and to announce abolitions and amnesties. | In pre-modern times there was an institution called "abolitio". In Roman law, the ''abolitio publica'' (as opposed to the more technical and individual ''abolitio privata'') was comparable to a general amnesty: people who were subject to the criminal justice system were suddenly set free. Whereas an amnesty usually refers to convicts who already had been handed their verdicts, an abolition referred (and refers) to people who are accused of a crime, who are at some stage of the criminal process, but who have not yet been sentenced. In other words: an abolition is an irregular end of a criminal procedure at the will of an (absolute) ruler who exercises his sovereign right to clemency even before a judgment has been reached. The ''abolitio publica'' meant something like "wiping out a criminal prosecution against somebody before a verdict was reached". Ever since the times of the Roman Empire, rulers used some joyful occasions regarding their own rule (a birthday, a crown jubilee, the birth of a long-awaited heir etc.) to temper justice with mercy and to announce abolitions and amnesties. | ||
Absolute rulers of all ages used these institutions as political instruments to influence popular opinion, but also to neutralize dissent, since their right to inferfere with criminal procedures at their will was by no means limited to clemency. The other side of abolition was their right to send anyone to prison or to the gallows just as they liked. In absolutist France, e.g., the King could not only free any of his subjects from criminal prosecution by writing a letter of abolition (lettre d’abolition), but he could also order the arrest of anyone by simply issueing a mandate to the contrary, i.e. a so-called lettre de cachet. | Absolute rulers of all ages used these institutions as political instruments to influence popular opinion, but also to neutralize dissent, since their right to inferfere with criminal procedures at their will was by no means limited to clemency. The other side of abolition was their right to send anyone to prison or to the gallows just as they liked. In absolutist France, e.g., the King could not only free any of his subjects from criminal prosecution by writing a letter of abolition (lettre d’abolition), but he could also order the arrest of anyone by simply issueing a mandate to the contrary, i.e. a so-called lettre de cachet. | ||
Since these interventions into the process of criminal justice were seen as following no other principle than the whimsical wilfulness of the absolute ruler, they drew a lot of popular resentment. For many, the lettres d'abolition and de cachet were the most striking symbols of the monarchy's violation of the principles of reason, justice, and equality. As a consequence, it was one of the first acts of Revolutionary France after 1789 to abolish the institution of the lettres d'abolition and the lettres de cachet. | |||
In other countries the practice of executive interference with criminal procedures was not extinct until much later, and in some it still persists until this day. | |||
The nouns ''abolitionist'' and ''abolitionism'' did not appear until much later. They are linked to demands “from below” against repressive legal institutions that are being seen as utterly unjust by some people who therefore demand their abolition (= abolitionists). The first movement that used these terms was the group around Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharpe and others who campaigned – starting in 1787 - against the trans-atlantic slave-trade. | The nouns ''abolitionist'' and ''abolitionism'' did not appear until much later. They are linked to demands “from below” against repressive legal institutions that are being seen as utterly unjust by some people who therefore demand their abolition (= abolitionists). The first movement that used these terms was the group around Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharpe and others who campaigned – starting in 1787 - against the trans-atlantic slave-trade. | ||