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CRIMEN MAJESTATIS Definition & Legal Meaning

Definition & Citations:

In criminal law. The crime of lese-majesty, or injuring majesty or royalty; high treason. The term was used by the older English law- writers to denote any crime affecting the king’s person or dignity. It is borrowed from the civil law, in which it signified the undertaking of any enterprise against the emperor or the republic. Inst. 4, 18, 3. Crimen lresae majestatis omnia alia crimina excedit quoad pcenam. 3 Inst 210. The crime of treason exceeds all other crimes in its punishment Crimen omnia ex se natavitiat. Crime vitiates everything which springs from it. Henry v. Bank of Salina, 5 Hill (N. Y.) 523, 531. Crimen trahit personam. The crime carries the person, (f, e., the commission of a crime gives the courts of the place where it is committed jurisdiction over the person of the offender.) People v. Adams, 3 Denio (N. Y.) 100, 210, 45 Am. Dee. 408. Crimina morte extingnuntur. Crimes are extinguished by death.

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