History Banishment was used as a punishment in ancient societies such as
Babylon,
Greece and
Rome. It is stipulated as the punishment for
incest with one's daughter in the
Code of Hammurabi, for
manslaughter in
Mosaic law, for murder in
Athens according to
Draco's homicide law, and for rape according to the ancient Indian text
Manusmriti. A special form of banishment known as
ostracism was practiced in Athens, in which citizens could vote for the expulsion of any citizen for ten years. Ostracism did not entail the loss of property or citizenship, and the ostracized person could return after ten years without disgrace or further penalty. Banishment was the punishment for a variety of offenses in Ancient Rome. During the
Late Republic, there was consensus among the public and legislators to reduce the incidence of capital punishment by allowing condemned persons to go into voluntary exile.
Deportation was forced exile, and entailed the lifelong loss of citizenship and property.
Relegation was a milder form of deportation, which preserved the subject's citizenship and property. France also employed banishment to colonies as a punishment, but on a smaller scale than Britain; it was in use to a limited extent until the mid-20th century. The
Russian Empire and
Qing China used exile as a means to populate frontier territories. Prison colonies became obsolete as the amount of habitable unsettled territory in the world decreased, and prisons became the normal method for dealing with convicts. Banishment was frequently used as a punishment in the
Thirteen Colonies, but it fell into disfavor under the United States. There is no federal law in the United States controlling banishment as a punishment. In the case
Cooper v. Telfair (1800), the US Supreme Court established that legislatures have the right to confiscate the property of and banish individuals who take up arms against the United States. At least one legal scholar has argued that this Supreme Court ruling "offered a definitive ruling on the legality of banishment." However, another scholar has argued that this reasoning cannot be easily used in the case of ordinary offenses, "where the security of the country is not at stake." Some US states allow intrastate banishment, although the practice is rare and its legality and constitutionality in many US jurisdictions has been described as "still an open question" by one scholar. Interstate banishment (i.e., expulsion from one US state to another) has been allowed in the United States only in isolated instances.
International law and contemporary use Denaturalization, or depriving a person of their citizenship, can be viewed as a modern form of banishment. Denaturalization does not necessarily result in an individual losing the right of
legal residence in the country that revokes their citizenship, but it often does. Modern
international law severely limits the circumstances under which a person can be deprived of their citizenship. Countries which permit the deprivation of citizenship after a criminal conviction for a serious offense include the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Most states only allow the deprivation of citizenship if it will not cause the person to become
stateless.
Exiled heads of state In some cases the
deposed head of state is allowed to go into exile following a
coup or other change of government, allowing a more peaceful transition to take place or to escape justice.
Avoiding tax or legal matters A wealthy citizen who moves to a jurisdiction with lower taxes is termed a
tax exile. Creative people such as authors and musicians who achieve sudden wealth sometimes choose this. Examples include the British-Canadian writer
Arthur Hailey, who moved to the Bahamas to avoid taxes following the runaway success of his novels
Hotel and
Airport, and the English rock band the
Rolling Stones who, in the spring of 1971, owed more in taxes than they could pay and left Britain before the government could seize their assets. Members of the band all moved to France for a period of time where they recorded music for the album that came to be called
Exile on Main Street, the Main Street of the title referring to the French Riviera. In 2012,
Eduardo Saverin, one of the founders of Facebook, made headlines by renouncing his U.S. citizenship before his company's
IPO. The dual Brazilian/U.S. citizen's decision to move to Singapore and renounce his citizenship spurred a bill in the U.S. Senate, the
Ex-PATRIOT Act, which would have forced such wealthy
tax exiles to pay a special tax in order to re-enter the United States. In some cases a person voluntarily lives in exile to avoid legal issues, such as
litigation or
criminal prosecution. An example of this is
Asil Nadir, who fled to the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus for 17 years rather than face
prosecution in connection with the failed £1.7 bn company
Polly Peck in the
United Kingdom.
Avoiding violence or persecution, or in the aftermath of war Examples include: •
Iraqi academics asked to return home "from exile" to help rebuild Iraq in 2009 • People undertaking a religious or
civil liberties role in society may be forced into exile due to threat of persecution. For example, in Czechoslovakia,
nuns were internally exiled to small villages along the northern border that had been stripped of their original German populations (such as
Bílá Voda) following the
Communist coup d'état of 1948. •
Thibaw Min and
Supayalat were exiled to
India after
Third Anglo-Burmese War, named
Pataw Mu.
Euphemism for convict Exile,
government man and
assigned servant were all
euphemisms used in the 19th century for
convicts under sentence who had been
transported from Britain to
Australia. ==For groups, nations, and governments==