{{Short description|Loss of all or almost all civil rights}} '''Civil death''' ({{langx|la|civiliter mortuus}})<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law-dictionary.org/CIVILITER+MORTUUS.asp?q=CIVILITER+MORTUUS|title=CIVILITER MORTUUS : on Law Dictionary|website=www.law-dictionary.org|access-date=2008-12-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707191058/http://www.law-dictionary.org/CIVILITER+MORTUUS.asp?q=CIVILITER+MORTUUS|archive-date=2010-07-07|url-status=dead}}</ref> is the loss of all or almost all civil rights by a person due to a conviction for a felony 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.<ref>See e.g. Interdiction of F.T.E., 594 So.2d 480 (La. App. 2d Cir. 1992).</ref>
==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.<ref name="felons">{{Cite journal |last1=Manza |first1=Jeff |last2=Uggen |first2=Christopher |date=2004 |title=Punishment and Democracy: Disenfranchisement of Nonincarcerated Felons in the United States |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3688812 |journal=Perspectives on Politics |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=491–505 |doi=10.1017/S1537592704040290 |jstor=3688812 |issn=1537-5927|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Under the Holy Roman Empire, a person declared civilly dead was referred to as ''vogelfrei'' ('free as a bird') and could even be killed since they were completely outside the law.<ref name="Death, Civil page 138">Article "Death, Civil;" Encyclopædia Americana, 1830 ed, page 138</ref>
Historically '''outlawry''', that is, declaring a person as an outlaw, was a common form of civil death.<ref name="Death, Civil page 138"/>
Under early English common law a living person could under certain conditions be considered legally dead. The three categories generally recognized as resulting in civil death were profession ("monastery death"), abjuration, and banishment.{{Sfn|Saunders|1970|p=989}}
==United States== In the U.S., the disenfranchisement of felons<ref>{{cite news| url=http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/29/voting-behind-bars/ | work=The New York Times | title=Voting Behind Bars | first=Linda | last=Greenhouse | date=July 29, 2010}}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://ssrn.com/abstract=2072736 Gabriel J. Chin, ''The New Civil Death: Rethinking Punishment in the Era of Mass Conviction'', 160 U. Penn. L. Rev. 1789 (2012)]</ref> Civil death as such remains part of the law in New York, Rhode Island, and the Virgin Islands.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chin|first=Gabriel "Jack"|date=June 7, 2018|title=Civil death lives!|url=https://ccresourcecenter.org/2018/06/07/civil-death-lives/|access-date=2020-10-05|website=Collateral Consequences Resource Center|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Civil Death Laws: When Life is Death {{!}} Criminal Legal News|url=https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2019/nov/18/civil-death-laws-when-life-death/|access-date=2020-10-05|website=www.criminallegalnews.org}}</ref>
==China== In China, the concept of civil death is embodied in the punishment known as "Deprivation of Political Rights" (Chinese: {{Lang|zh|剥夺政治权利}}), as outlined in Part One, Section 7 of the Criminal Law. The deprivation starts from the date on which imprisonment or criminal detention ends or from the date on which parole begins. Deprivation of political rights shall, as a matter of course, be in effect during the period in which the principal punishment is being executed. While the duration is usually issued between one to five years, Article 57 establishes that individuals sentenced to death or life imprisonment are automatically stripped of their political rights for life. If such sentences are later commuted to fixed-term imprisonment, the deprivation period is adjusted to a range of three to ten years. Political rights are defined in the Criminal Law as:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chinalawedu.com/new/23223a23228a2010/20101222shangf111042.shtml|title=中华人民共和国刑法-英汉对照法律英语|website=www.chinalawedu.com|access-date=2019-05-28}}</ref> *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, enterprise, institution or people's organization.
==See also== *Disfranchisement *Loss of rights due to felony conviction *Sex offender registries in the United States *Social death *Homo Sacer, a similar status in ancient Roman Law
== References == === Citations === {{Reflist}}
=== Sources === * {{Cite journal |last=Saunders |first=Harry David |date=1970 |title=Civil Death - A New Look at an Ancient Doctrine |url=https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmlr/vol11/iss4/8 |journal=William & Mary Law Review |volume=11 |pages=988–1003}}
== External links == * {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Civil Death|year=1905 |short=x}} {{Capital punishment}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Civil Death}} Category:Punishments Category:Human rights Category:Legal aspects of death