Legal immunity, or immunity from prosecution, is a

legal status Legal status describes the legal rights, duties and obligations of a person or Legal person, entity, or a subset of those rights and obligations. (defining "status") The term may be used to describe a person's legal condition with respect to perso ...

wherein an individual or entity cannot be held liable for a violation of the law, in order to facilitate societal aims that outweigh the value of imposing liability in such cases. Such legal immunity may be from

criminal prosecution In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

, or from

civil liability In law, liable means "responsible or answerable in law; legally obligated". Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law and can arise from various areas of law, such as contracts, torts, taxes, or fines given by government agencie ...

(being subject of

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

), or both. The most notable forms of legal immunity are

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...

and witness immunity. One author has described legal immunity as "the obverse of a legal power":Dudley Knowles,
Political Obligation: A Critical Introduction
' (2009), p. 26.

Criticism

Legal immunities may be subject to criticism because they institute a separate standard of conduct for those who receive them. For example, as one author notes:

Types

Immunity of government leaders

Many forms of immunity are granted to government leaders to rule over the world,

continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

and

rural area In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

without fear of being sued or charged with a crime for so doing: *

Sovereign immunity Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine whereby a monarch, sovereign or State (polity), state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from lawsuit, civil suit or criminal law, criminal prosecution, strictly speaking in mode ...

, the prevention of lawsuits or prosecution against rulers or governments without their given consent *

Sovereign immunity in the United States In United States law, the federal government as well as state and tribal governments generally enjoy sovereign immunity, also known as governmental immunity, from lawsuits. Local governments in most jurisdictions enjoy immunity from some form ...

bars suit against federal, state, and tribal governments, which cannot be sued without their consent. Governmental consent to be sued is expressed through legislation as a limited waiver of sovereign immunity *

Parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...

, immunity granted to government leaders during their tenure and in the course of their duties * Speech or Debate Clause, a provision in the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

that provides immunity to members of Congress for statements made in either house *

Immunity from prosecution (international law) Immunity from prosecution is a doctrine of international law that allows an accused to avoid prosecution for criminal offences. Immunities are of two types. The first is functional immunity, or immunity '' ratione materiae''. This is an immuni ...

, exclusion of elected officials from prosecution under international law *

State immunity The doctrine and rules of state immunity concern the protection which a sovereign state, state is given from being sued in the courts of other states. The rules relate to legal proceedings in the courts of another state, not in a state's own cour ...

, principle of international law that the government of a state is not amenable before the courts of another state

Immunity of government officials

Judicial immunity Judicial immunity is a form of sovereign immunity, which protects judges and others employed by the judiciary from liability resulting from their judicial actions. It is intended to ensure that judges can make decisions free from improper influen ...

, the absolute (sovereign) immunity of a judiciary in the course of their official duties *

Qualified immunity In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle of federal law that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from lawsuits for damages unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "c ...

, in the United States, sovereign immunity of all government officials and government employees performing tasks as part of the government's actions *

Absolute immunity In United States law, absolute immunity is a type of sovereign immunity for government officials that confers complete immunity from criminal prosecution and suits for damages, so long as officials are acting within the scope of their duties. The ...

, a type of sovereign immunity for all government officials and government employees that confers total immunity when acting in the course of their duties *

Diplomatic immunity Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country.

, agreement between sovereign governments to exclude diplomats from local laws because grants of immunity are particularly important in intergovernmental relations, where traditions have arisen to prevent the federal civil servants of a country's

foreign service Foreign Service may refer to: * Diplomatic service, the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country * United States Foreign Service, the diplomatic service of the United States government **Foreign Service ...

cadre from being harassed by their host countries. Such immunities may be granted by law (statutory or constitutional) or by

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

Immunity of resident citizens of a country participating in the legal process

Amnesty law An amnesty law is any legislative, constitutional or executive arrangement that retroactively exempts a select group of people, usually military leaders and government leaders, from criminal liability for the crimes that they committed. More speci ...

, a law that provides immunity for past crimes *

Spousal privilege In common law, spousal privilege (also called marital privilege or husband-wife privilege) is a term used in the law of evidence to describe two separate privileges that apply to spouses: the spousal communications privilege and the spousal t ...

, also called spousal immunity, protects a spouse from testifying against the defendant * Witness immunity, immunity granted to a

witness In law, a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or claim to know. A witness might be compelled to provide testimony in court, before a grand jur ...

in exchange for

testimony Testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. Law In the law, testimon ...

Immunity of private officials

Reporter's privilege Reporter's privilege in the United States (also journalist's privilege, newsman's privilege, or press privilege), is a "reporter's protection under constitutional or statutory law, from being compelled to testify about confidential information or ...

, a limited

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

right many jurisdictions by statutory law or judicial decision have by which journalists may not be prosecuted for protecting their confidential sources from

discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

Immunity of nonprofit organizations

* Charitable immunity, immunity from liability granted to charities in many countries from the 19th century to the mid-20th century Such immunities may be granted by law or, for witness immunity, by

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

s or other authorities on a case-by-case basis, commonly as an agreement with the witnesses.

References

{{Authority control Legal doctrines and principles