II. The Right of Pardoning.
The right of pardoning (jus aggratiandi), viewed in relation to
the criminal, is the right of mitigating or entirely remitting his
punishment. On the side of the sovereign this is the most delicate
of all rights, as it may be exercised so as to set forth the splendour
of his dignity, and yet so as to do a great wrong by it. It ought
not to be exercised in application to the crimes of the subjects
against each other; for exemption from punishment (impunitas criminis)
would be the greatest wrong that could be done to them. It is only
an occasion of some form of treason (crimen laesae majestatis), as a
lesion against himself, that the sovereign should make use of this
right. And it should not be exercised even in this connection, if
the safety of the people would be endangered by remitting such
punishment. This right is the only one which properly deserves the
name of a "right of majesty."
50. Juridical Relations of the Citizen to his Country and
to Other Countries. Emigration; Immigration; Banishment;
Exile.
The land or territory whose inhabitants- in virtue of its
political constitution and without the necessary intervention of a
special juridical act- are, by birth, fellow-citizens of one and the
same commonwealth, is called their country or fatherland.
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