amerciable
Adjective: - Subject to being fined or penalized with a monetary penalty, where the specific amount is determined by a judge or court. It describes an offense for which the prescribed punishment is an "amercement" (a financial penalty).
The term is used in a legal or historical context to classify an offense as one punishable by a discretionary fine. - The minor regulatory violation was deemed amerciable rather than requiring imprisonment. - In medieval law, many petty crimes were amerciable offenses.
- Legal Context: The term is closely associated with the legal power to "amerce," meaning to impose a fine at the discretion of the court. It is often used in historical discussions of common law.
- The court found the lord's action to be amerciable and levied a heavy fine.
- Amerce (verb): To punish by imposing an arbitrary fine.
- The king's court could amerce any subject found in contempt.
- Amercement (noun): The fine itself; the penalty imposed.
- The amercement for the offense was set at twenty shillings.
- Fineable: Punishable by a monetary penalty.
- Punishable: Deserving of or liable to punishment (a broader term).
This is a specialized legal term, primarily of historical interest. In modern legal language, "fineable" is more commonly used. "Amerciable" specifically implies the fine is not fixed by statute but is set at the discretion of a judicial authority.
- of a crime or misdemeanor; punishable by a fine set by a judge