An article of impeachment is a documented statement which specifies the charges to be tried in an

impeachment trial An impeachment trial is a trial that functions as a component of an impeachment. Several governments utilize impeachment trials as a part of their processes for impeachment, but differ as to when in the impeachment process trials take place and how ...

as a basis for removing an officeholder. Articles of impeachment are an aspect of impeachment processes of many governments that utilize a bifurcated (two-part) impeachment process that sees a vote to "impeach" followed by an impeachment trial on whether to remove an officer. In an impeachment trial, an article of impeachment serves the same role that an

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a legal person, person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felony, felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concep ...

would in a

criminal trial Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail or ...

. Articles of impeachment are adopted prior to an impeachment trial by the legislative body with authority to invoke the impeachment that triggers the trial. In the trial, the accused party generally attempts to counter the elements of the article(s) of impeachment through arguments.

United States

Federal government

In the

United States federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 ...

impeachments, the articles of impeachment are adopted by the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

. After the articles are sent to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

, the Senate holds an impeachment trial on the charges of the article, sitting as the "High Court of Impeachment".

Adoption

An article of impeachment may be preceded by a separate article first declaring an impeachment. In such an instance, an official is already impeached and pending a trial even before the adoption of any articles to provide specific charges to be tried on. This was standard practice in the 19th century. Alternatively, in more modern impeachment, article(s) of impeachment be instead directly adopted without any such preceding impeachment resolution, in which case the first article of impeachment to be adopted is what officially impeaches the official. In the past, proposed articles have both been first approved by a committee or have gone to a direct floor vote without committee approval. In order for any article of impeachment to advance from a committee to a full vote of the House, a simple

majority A majority, also called a simple majority or absolute majority to distinguish it from #Related terms, related terms, is more than half of the total.Dictionary definitions of ''majority'' aMerriam-Webster Often articles are created by a committee that has been tasked with running an impeachment inquiry. In this instance, they are typically considered in a meeting called a " markup". After the House has approved articles of impeachment by a simple majority, the

will be presented with the matter, leading to an impeachment trial.

State

Articles of impeachment have also been used in impeachment at the state level.

Other government bodies

Many tribal governments have impeachment processes, some of which make use of articles of impeachment,.

Philippines

Articles of impeachment are utilized in the impeachment process of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

United Kingdom

When impeachment was a practice in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, articles of impeachment were, by convention, utilized in the impeachment process.

Other countries

References

{{Reflist Impeachment