Definition
Infamia (Latin) is the Roman and civil law concept of legal infamy — a formal diminishment of a person's civic reputation and standing, carrying defined legal disabilities as a consequence. It operated as both a social and juridical category: a person marked by infamia lost certain rights of citizenship, including the capacity to testify, to bring certain legal actions, or to hold public office.
Two formally recognized subtypes governed how infamia attached:
1. Infamia juris — Infamy established by operation of law as the direct legal consequence of conviction for a crime or commission of a defined dishonorable act. The law itself declared the person infamous; no separate inquiry into actual reputation was needed.
2. Infamia facti — Infamy arising from the fact of conduct itself, where a person is regarded or treated as infamous in practice because of presumed or reputed guilt, even though no judicial proceeding has formally established it. The disgrace precedes or substitutes for legal determination.
Common Confusion
Infamia should not be conflated with the common law concept of infamy, though the two share roots and often appear together in historical sources. Common law infamy — primarily relevant to competency of witnesses and the disqualification triggered by conviction for crimen falsi or other serious crimes — borrowed the Roman framework but applied it through different procedural mechanisms. In Roman law, infamia was a graduated civil status with multiple causes and consequences beyond the courtroom. In common law, "infamy" became largely a narrower evidentiary and penal concept. Historical sources sometimes use infamia and infamy interchangeably, which can obscure whether a Roman law rule or a common law rule is being described.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Infamia juris — Legal infamy; attached automatically by law upon conviction or commission of specified acts. The judicial record itself was the operative fact.
Infamia facti — Factual infamy; a condition of social and moral disgrace recognized before or apart from formal legal proceedings. Less certain in its legal effects, but relevant to Roman law proceedings and canonical law contexts.
Why It Matters in Research
Infamia is primarily a Roman law and civil law term and will appear most often in sources treating the civil law tradition: treatises on Roman law, ecclesiastical and canon law materials, and civil law jurisdictions. Researchers working in English common law sources will encounter it mainly in comparative passages, historical discussions of witness competency, or in treatments of crimen falsi.
The key navigational trap is the inconsistent translation across historical sources. Some authorities render infamia directly as "infamy" and treat it as equivalent to the common law disqualification; others are careful to mark infamia as a distinct Roman law status. A passage citing infamia in an English common law context is most often a transplanted civil law concept, not a statement of English law.
The infamia juris / infamia facti distinction is analytically important and is where historical sources most consistently add value. Researchers tracing questions about whether legal disabilities attach upon conviction versus upon reputation or repute should follow this distinction carefully, as it maps onto later common law debates about the timing and source of disqualification.
In canon law materials, infamia retains operational significance as a formal canonical status affecting a person's standing before ecclesiastical tribunals. Researchers in ecclesiastical law should treat it as a live technical term in those sources, not merely a historical artifact.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (both editions) defines infamia concisely and reproduces the juris/facti distinction with reference to Commonwealth v. Green, 17 Mass. 515 — a point of genuine utility, as it grounds the Roman law concept in an early American case that engaged the distinction. Burrill adds texture by tracing the term to its root in infamis (one not of good character; branded as infamous by law) and citing Reeves' History of English Law, which situates infamia within the reception of Roman legal concepts into English legal history. Burrill's reference to Calvinus's Lexicon (a standard civil law dictionary) is useful for researchers needing to trace the term into continental sources.
None of the three dictionary sources address infamia's distinct operation in canon law, and none engage its procedural mechanics within Roman law in depth — a significant gap for researchers needing more than the definitional summary. For substantive treatment, Justinian's Digest and secondary works on Roman law procedure will be necessary.
Jurisdictional Note
Infamia as a formal legal status has no direct equivalent in modern American or English common law. Its influence survives indirectly in doctrines governing witness competency, civil death, and collateral consequences of conviction. In civil law jurisdictions and in canon law, infamia retains more direct doctrinal relevance.