Outlaw

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Butch Cassidy, a famous Western American outlaw
Butch Cassidy, a famous Western American outlaw

An outlaw is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry, meaning literally "outside the law". In the common law of England, a judgment declaring someone an outlaw, known as a "Writ of Outlawry", was one of the harshest penalties in the legal system, since the outlaw could not use the legal system to protect himself if needed, such as from mob justice.

Social Banditry best describes the "outlaw." Social Banditry was a paradigm first described by Eric Hobsbawn[1]; a criminal type found among peasants under the stresses of developing capitalism (the example of Robin Hood comes to mind). The core essence of what constitutes this paradigm is a restoration of harmony through a "moral economy." Outlaws usually stand for an idealized older form of social order that ought to be, in their own minds, morally right. This restoration of harmony usually takes form in unorthodox attempts, and "outside the law." They are consequently protected by those who support the effort and valorized by the people. This in turn created problems for the lawful citizens or rulers trying to put down what they perceive to be a rebellion.

Though the judgment of outlawry is now obsolete (even though it inspired the pro forma Outlawries Bill which is still to this day introduced in the British House of Commons during the State Opening of Parliament), romanticised outlaws became stock characters in several fictional settings, particularly in Western movies. Thus, "outlaw" is still commonly used for those living that lifestyle, whether actual criminals evading the law or those merely opposed to "law-and-order" notions of authority (such as the "outlaw country" movement in the 1970's).

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In British common law, an outlaw was a person who had defied the laws of the realm, by such acts as ignoring a summons to court, or fleeing instead of appearing to plead when charged with a crime. In the earlier law of Anglo-Saxon England, outlawry was also declared when a person committed a homicide and could not pay the weregild, the blood-money, due to the victim's kin. Outlawry also existed in other legal codes of the time, such as the ancient Norse and Icelandic legal code.

To be declared an outlaw was to suffer a form of civil death. The outlaw was debarred from all civilized society. No one was allowed to give him food, shelter, or any other sort of support — to do so was to commit the crime of aiding and abetting, and to be in danger of the ban oneself. An outlaw might be killed with impunity; and it was not only lawful but meritorious to kill a thief flying from justice — to do so was not murder. A man who slew a thief was expected to declare the fact without delay, otherwise the dead man’s kindred might clear his name by their oath and require the slayer to pay weregild as for a true man[2] Because the outlaw has defied civil society, that society was quit of any obligations to the outlaw —outlaws had no civil rights, could not sue in any court on any cause of action, though they were themselves personally liable.

In the context of criminal law, outlawry faded not so much by legal changes as by the greater population density of the country, which made it harder for wanted fugitives to evade capture; and by the international adoption of extradition pacts. In the civil context, outlawry became obsolescent in civil procedure by reforms that no longer required summoned defendants to appear and plead. Still, the possibility of being declared an outlaw for derelictions of civil duty continued to exist in English law until 1879 and in Scots law until the late 1940s. Prior to the Nuremberg Trials, the British jurist Lord Chancellor Lord Simon attempted to resurrect the concept of outlawry in order to provide for summary executions of captured Nazi war criminals. Although Simon's point of view was supported by Winston Churchill, American and Soviet attorneys insisted on a trial, and he was thus overruled.

Lampião, a famous bandit (turned into popular myth) of Brazilian Cangaço
Lampião, a famous bandit (turned into popular myth) of Brazilian Cangaço

The stereotype owes a great deal to English folklore precedents, in the tales of Robin Hood and of gallant highwaymen. But outlawry was once a term of art in the law, and one of the harshest judgments that could be pronounced on anyone's head.

The outlaw is familiar to contemporary readers as an archetype in Western movies, depicting the lawless expansionism period of the United States in the late 19th century. The Western outlaw is typically a criminal who operates from a base in the wilderness, and opposes, attacks or disrupts the fragile institutions of new settlements.

See also: List of Western Outlaws

  • Zhang Xianzhong - nicknamed Yellow Tiger, was a Chinese bandit and rebel leader who conquered Sichuan Province in the middle of the 17th century.
  • Song Jiang - Historical Chinese outlaw immortalised in the classic Water Margin
  • Hong Gildong - Historical/legendary Korean outlaw
  • Ishikawa Goemon - Legendary Japanese thief featured in kabuki plays
  • Wong Fei Hung - Famous Chinese herbalist considered an outlaw hero in Chinese folklore
  • Veerappan, Poacher, Sandalwood smuggler, India
  • Fudayl ibn Iyad - famous highwayman of Khurasan who repented and traveled in search of knowledge. He is revered by Muslims as a major figure of early Sufism.
  • Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari - rose from a bandit to the rule of much of modern Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan
  • Nirushan Neela - famous Bandit of southern Asia who was never caught by police. Stopped killing in 1930 and was never heard from again.

  • Dulla Bhatti - was a Punjabi who led a rebellion against the Mughal emperor Akbar. His act of helping a poor peasant's daughter to get married led to a famous folk take which is still recited every year on the festival of Lohri by Punjabis.

  1. ^ "Bandits", first published by Weidenfield and Nicholson 1969
  2. ^ F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895, 2nd. ed., Cambridge, 1898, reprinted 1968).
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw"
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