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Immunity, also known as transactional immunity, confers a status on a person or body that places them beyond the law and makes that person or body free from otherwise legal obligations such as, for example, liability for torts or damages or prosecution under criminal law for criminal acts. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... For other uses, see Law (disambiguation). ... In the most general sense, a liability is anything that is a hindrance, or puts individuals at a disadvantage. ... Not to be confused with torte, an iced cake. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of law that regulates governmental sanctions (such as imprisonment and/or fines) as retaliation for crimes against the social order. ... The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply. ... For other uses, see Crime (disambiguation). ...

There are numerous forms of immunity, as listed below. Each has a separate article explaining it in more detail.

Forms of immunity

• Amnesty law is legislation affording immunity for past crimes.

• Judicial immunity, which derives from sovereign immunity, is the absolute immunity of a judge or magistrate from any kind of civil liability for an act performed in the judge's official capacity. Hence, while sitting on the bench the judge cannot be sued for defamation if he or she makes a statement about one of the parties before the court that might otherwise be considered slander.

• Prosecutorial immunity occurs when a prosecutor grants immunity to a witness in exchange for testimony. It is immunity because the prosecutor essentially agrees to never prosecute the crime that the witness might have committed in exchange for that testimony. It is commonly known as "King/Queen's evidence" or "State's evidence" and numerous less complimentary terms.

• Parliamentary immunity is granted to elected representative officials during their tenure in their legislature for their official acts undertaken by them. Such immunity is seen to be a means to the free discussion of ideas by preventing malicious prosecution by political opponents or the government itself, although when it is abused there may be ways to surmount such immunity; this was invoked in the case of Jürgen Möllemann.

• Diplomatic immunity, an agreed policy between sovereign governments, ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host country's laws (although they can be expelled or declared unwanted).

• Sovereign immunity holds that a sovereign is superior to all in authority and power. It prevents, in advance, a suit or prosecution against a sovereign, being a monarch, ruler, or government, without the sovereign's consent.

• Qualified immunity, in the United States, grants immunity to individuals performing tasks as part of the government. Certain individuals are immune from lawsuits when "insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." ^[1]. Certain individuals who are not government employees may have qualified immunity if they are considered a "state actor".

• Immunity from prosecution in international criminal law describes the process of countries which sign and/or ratify treaties on the understanding or reservation that they are or may not be prosecuted under it, thus granting themselves immunity. For example, in 1948 the United States signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide with the proviso that no claim of genocide could be brought against it at the International Court of Justice without its consent [1]. It later invoked this immunity to deflect charges of genocide brought against it by Yugoslavia.

The term Amnesty law refers to any law that retroactively exempts a select group of people, usually military leaders and government leaders, from criminal liability for crimes committed. ... Judicial Immunity is a form of legal immunity which protects judges and others employed by the judiciary from lawsuits brought against them for official conduct in office. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A magistrate is a judicial officer. ... Slander and Libel redirect here. ... In United States law, Prosecutorial immunity (or immunity from prosecution) occurs when a prosecutor grants immunity, usually to a witness in exchange for testimony or production of other evidence. ... Parliamentary immunity is a system in which members of the parliament are granted partial immunity from prosecution. ... Malicious prosecution is a common law intentional tort. ... Jürgen W. Möllemann (July 15, 1945 - June 5, 2003) was a German politician. ... Diplomatic immunity is a form of legal immunity and a policy held between governments, which ensures that diplomats are given safe passage and are considered not susceptible to lawsuit or prosecution under the host countrys laws (although they can be expelled). ... Look up Persona non grata in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Sovereign immunity or crown immunity is a type of immunity that, in common law jurisdictions traces its origins from early English law. ... Quality of Immunity Government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. ... Immunity from prosecution is a doctrine of international law that allows an accused to avoid prosecution for criminal offences. ... International law deals with the relationships between states, or between persons or entities in different states. ... The first two pages of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in (left to right) German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Ottoman Turkish and Russian A treaty is an agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely states and international organizations. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 and came into effect in January 1951. ... The International Court of Justice (known colloquially as the World Court or ICJ; French: ) is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in the Latin alphabet, Југославија in Cyrillic; English: South Slavia, or literary The Land of South Slavs) describes three political entities that existed one at a time on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century. ...

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