BANISHMENT

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

← Dictionary
BANISHMENTAuthored
The Law Mind • 1063 words
Definition
A criminal punishment compelling a person to leave a city, territory, or country for a specified period of time or for life. Historically associated with political offenders rather than ordinary criminals, for whom the comparable punishment was called transportation. Unlike transportation, banishment forbids return but does not compel the offender to go to any particular place — it removes rather than relocates. In modern American law, banishment survives in limited but contested forms, primarily as a condition of probation or parole. Courts have imposed geographic exclusion orders requiring offenders to stay out of specified jurisdictions, neighborhoods, or states. Whether such orders constitute impermissible banishment under constitutional doctrine — implicating the right to travel, due process, and the Eighth Amendment — is the central question that has replaced the older punishment's formal application. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The act of banishing; the state of being banished; exile. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The act of banishing, or the state of being banished — used freely in both political and figurative senses, as in being driven out by enemies or circumstance. The common and legal meanings align closely at the core — forced removal — but the gap worth noting is precision. Common usage treats banishment and exile as interchangeable. Legal usage draws a functional distinction: banishment drives out, transportation drives to. The modern legal debate has further narrowed the term to conditions-of-supervision orders, a context entirely absent from ordinary usage. ---
Common Confusion
BANISHMENT vs. TRANSPORTATION: Historical sources are consistent that these are distinct punishments. Banishment expelled; transportation relocated to a specific destination (typically a penal colony). The distinction mattered in both legal procedure and severity. Researchers encountering either term in pre-20th-century sources should not treat them as synonyms. BANISHMENT vs. EXILE: Often used interchangeably in common language and in some historical legal sources. Technically, exile more often describes voluntary departure under compulsion of circumstances or political pressure, while banishment is a formal judicial or sovereign act. The distinction is not uniformly maintained across sources. BANISHMENT vs. DEPORTATION: Modern readers may conflate banishment with deportation of non-citizens. Deportation is a distinct administrative and immigration law mechanism; banishment in its traditional legal sense applies to persons within a sovereign's jurisdiction, including citizens. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The term carries two largely separate research contexts that must not be conflated. The first is historical: banishment as a formal criminal sentence. Pre-20th-century American and English sources use the term in this sense. Researchers working in early American case law, colonial criminal practice, or comparative punishment history will find banishment treated as a primary topic. The reference in multiple dictionaries to Cooper v. Telfair, 4 Dall. 14, signals that constitutional questions about banishment arose early — that case touched on whether a state legislature could impose it by statute, a separation-of-powers and ex post facto concern. The second is modern: banishment as a constitutional problem in sentencing. Contemporary cases typically arise when a court imposes a probation or parole condition barring an offender from an entire county, city, or state. Courts have split on whether such conditions are impermissibly punitive, vague, or violate the constitutional right to travel. Researchers tracking this line of authority should not expect historical dictionaries to address it — the modern doctrine developed well after these sources were compiled. A further trap: Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is truncated in available corpus editions. Do not treat the partial definition as the complete entry. Cross-check against Black's 2nd Ed. for the fuller statement. The corpus distinction between banishment and transportation is a reliable period marker. Sources that use transportation in a criminal punishment context are almost certainly pre-20th century or discussing British colonial practice. Sources using geographic exclusion conditions without naming banishment may be discussing the same underlying concept in modern doctrinal clothing. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries agree on the core definition: forced departure from a place for a fixed period or for life, inflicted principally on political offenders. The contrast with transportation — which was the standard punishment for ordinary criminals, especially under English practice — appears in Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence, and is the most substantively useful distinction these sources preserve. Bouvier's adds nothing beyond the Black's formulation and refers readers to EXPULSION, suggesting the editors saw meaningful overlap. That cross-reference is worth following in research — expulsion and banishment were not always carefully distinguished in early American usage. None of the historical sources address the modern probationary context, the right to travel, or Eighth Amendment limitations. This is an expected gap: those doctrinal frameworks developed in the 20th century. Researchers should treat the historical dictionary definitions as covering the punishment in its classical form only and look to case law and secondary sources for modern applications. The citation to 4 Dall. 14 (Cooper v. Telfair) appears in both Black's editions and Bouvier's, suggesting it was the foundational American authority these editors recognized. It is a real case, decided by the Supreme Court in 1800, and is accessible for verification. ---
Jurisdictional Note
The constitutional limits on banishment-style conditions vary by circuit and state. Some jurisdictions have invalidated statewide exclusion orders as violations of the right to travel or as overbroad probation conditions; others have upheld narrowly tailored geographic restrictions tied to the offense. Federal constitutional doctrine sets a floor but leaves substantial room for state variation. Researchers should treat this as an actively unsettled area and verify current circuit and state authority directly. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Punishment (historical forms and constitutional limits); Exile and Transportation (comparative punishment doctrine); Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment framework as applied to sentencing conditions). ---
Related Terms
Transportation (punishment) — the closely related but distinct historical sentence Deportation — modern removal mechanism for non-citizens; not synonymous Exile — overlapping common usage; imprecise legal synonym Expulsion — see Bouvier's cross-reference; used in some sources interchangeably Right to travel — constitutional doctrine implicated by modern geographic exclusion orders Probation conditions — primary modern legal context for banishment-adjacent disputes Ex post facto — constitutional concern raised in early banishment cases Outlawry — historical precursor; the most extreme form of legal exclusion from community protection
BANISHMENTmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In criminal law. A punishment inflicted upon criminals, by com- pelling them to quit a city, place, or country for a specified period of time, or for life. See 4 Dall. 14. It is inflicted principally upon political offend- ers, "transportation" being the word used to ex- press a similar punishment of ordinary criminals. Banishment, however, merely forbids the return of the person banished before the expiration of the sentence, while transportation involves the idea of deprivation of liberty after the convict ar- rives at the place to which he has been carried. Rap. & L.
BANISHMENTmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
In Criminal Law. A punishment inflicted upon criminals, by compelling them to quit a city, place, or country for a specified period of time, or for life. See 4 Dall. 14. See EXPULSION. BANK (Anglicized form of bancus, a bench). The bench of justice. A "bank" is an institution of a quasi public character. It is chartered by the government for the purpose inter alia of holding and safely keeping the moneys of individuals and corporations. It receives such moneys upon an implied contract to pay the depositor's checks upon demand. 69 S. W. 760. "Bank" includes any person or association of persons carrying on the business of bank- ing, whether incorporated or not. Miller's Ky. Negotiable Inst's Law § 190. Sittings in bank (or banc). An official meeting of four of the judges of a common- law court. Wharton, Lex. 2d Lond. ed. Used of a court sitting for the determination of law points, as distinguished from nisi prius sittings to determin facts; 3 Bla. Com. 28, n. Bank le Roy. The king's bench. Finch, 198. In Commercial Law. A place for the deposit of money. An institution, generally incorporated, authorized to receive deposits of money, to lend money, and to issue promissory notes, --usually known by the name of bank notes, -or to perform some one or more of these functions. See 15 N. Y. 166; 79 id. 440; 15 Johns. 358; 3 Wall. 295; 12 Mich. 389. It was the custom of the early money-changers to transact their business in public places, at the doors of churches, at markets, and, among the Jews, in the temple (Mark xi. 15). They used tables or benches for their convenience in counting and as sorting their coins. The table so used was called banche, and the traders themselves, bankers or benchers. In times still more ancient, their benches were called cambii, and they themselves were called cambiators. Du Cange, Cambii. Banks are said to be of three kinds, viz, ; of deposit, of discount, and of circulation, they generally exercise all these functions; 17 Wall. 118. See NATIONAL BANKS.
BANISHMENTmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
-A punishment by forced exile, either for years or for life; inflicted principally upon political offend-
BANISHMENTn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
The act of banishing, or the state of being banished. He secured himself by the banishment of his enemies. Johnson. Round the wide world in banishment we roam. Dryden.
banishmentnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
The act of banishing. | The state of being banished, exile.

Explore the full Law Mind legal research platform.

SubscribeEncyclopediaSign In
The Law Mind Legal Dictionary. This is a legal research library, not a lawyer.
Dictionary • Encyclopedia • Sign In