Civil death ( la, civiliter mortuus) is the loss of all or almost all

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

by a person due to a conviction for a

felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...

or due to an act by the government of a country that results in the loss of civil rights. It is usually inflicted on persons convicted of crimes against the state or adults determined by a court to be legally incompetent because of mental disability.

Medieval Europe

In medieval Europe, felons lost all civil rights upon their conviction. This civil death often led to actual death, since anyone could kill and injure a felon with impunity.Manza, Jeff and Uggen, Christopher. Punishment and Democracy: Disenfranchisement of Nonincarcerated Felons in the United States. 'Perspectives on Politics.' Page 492. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3688812 Under the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

, a person declared civilly dead was referred to as ''

vogelfrei ''Vogelfrei'' ( nl, Vogelvrij and af, Voëlvry) in German usage denotes the status of a person on whom a legal penalty of outlawry has been imposed. However, the original meaning of the term referred to independence, being "free as a bird"; H ...

'' ('free as a bird') and could even be killed since they were completely outside the law.Article "Death, Civil;" Encyclopædia Americana, 1830 ed, page 138 Historically outlawry, that is, declaring a person as an

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

, was a common form of civil death.

United States

In the US, the disenfranchisement of felons has been called a form of civil death, as has being subjected to collateral consequences in general. The contention is not generally supported by legal scholars. Civil death as such remains part of the law in New York,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

and the

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands ( es, Islas Vírgenes) are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Cro ...

Deprivation of Political Rights (China, PRC)

The Deprivation of Political Rights is an accessory punishment defined in the Criminal Law of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(PRC) (Article 34 of Chapter III), which can be enforced solely or with a principal penalty (e.g.

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...

) to limit the convicted person's right to be involved in political activities. For those sentenced to a principal penalty with deprivation of political rights, the deprivation is effective during their time incarcerated and the duration as sentenced from the day of their release or parole. It is only automatically imposed on those sentenced to life imprisonment or death penalty. If the principle penalty is commuted, usually so will the deprivation of political rights. Political rights are not automatically deprived for prisoners, and those inmates who are not subject to this deprivation can and do still vote and theoretically can even be elected. The PRC being a

one party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...

, this penalty is not a significant one.

Political rights

As defined in the Criminal Law, the nominal political rights include: *the right to vote and to stand for election; *the rights of freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration; *the right to hold a position in a state organization; and *the right to hold a leading position in any

state-owned company A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a Government, government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn Profit (econom ...

, enterprise, institution or people's organization.

Notes and references

External links