Outlaw

[2] The interdiction of water and fire was traditionally imposed by the tribune of the plebs and is attested to have been in use during the First Punic War of the third century BC by Cato the Elder.

No one was allowed to give him food, shelter, or any other sort of support—to do so was to commit the crime of aiding and abetting, and to be in danger of the ban oneself.

[citation needed] In the context of criminal law, outlawry faded out, not so much by legal changes as by the greater population density of the country, which made it harder for wanted fugitives to evade capture, and by the adoption of international extradition pacts.

In early modern times, the term Vogelfrei and its cognates came to be used in Germany, the Low Countries, and Scandinavia, referring to a person stripped of his civil rights being "free" for the taking like a bird.

The best known are Juraj Jánošík and Jakub Surovec in Slovakia, Oleksa Dovbush in Ukraine, Rózsa Sándor in Hungary, Schinderhannes and Hans Kohlhase in Germany.

The concept of outlawry was reintroduced to British law by several Australian colonial governments in the late 19th century to deal with the menace of bushranging.

The Felons Apprehension Act (1865 No 2a)[15] of New South Wales provided that a judge could, upon proof of sufficiently notorious conduct, issue a special bench warrant requiring a person to submit themselves to police custody before a given date, or be declared an outlaw.

[16] Although the provisions of the New South Wales Felons Apprehension Act were not exercised after the end of the bushranging era, they remained on the statute book until 1976.

[17]There have been several instances in military and political conflicts throughout history whereby one side declares the other as being "illegal", notorious cases being the use of proscription in the civil wars of the Roman Republic.

[citation needed] In later times there was the notable case of Napoleon Bonaparte whom the Congress of Vienna, on 13 March 1815, declared had "deprived himself of the protection of the law".

[20] The nobleman Prince William of Orange was declared an outlaw, an enemy of the state and Christendom itself for his involvement in the Dutch revolt and ensuing Eighty Years' War.

[21] This led to his death at the hands of Balthasar Gérard, who was promised a general pardon, 25.000 golden crowns and ascension into the nobility, but was caught and hanged, drawn and quartered for the offence of high treason instead by the court at Delft.