Parliamentary Immunity Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Parliamentary immunity is the privilege of legislators to be free from partial prosecution while they are in office. Either legislative action or a superior court ruling can usually revoke this pr ivilege. The practice was developed to ensure the executive could not exert undue pressure on the legislature by targeting individual members for investigation or prosecution in order to persuade voting outcomes. The or igins of parliamentary immunity date to efforts by the British House of Commons in the late 1300s to protect members from prosecution by the Crown.

Parliamentary immunity usually includes nonliability, sometimes known as nonaccountability, for speech, motions, votes, or other official acts while in office. Political systems in the United States, the United Kingdom, or the Netherlands, limit parliamentary immunity to speech and charges of libel and slander. However, some systems, such as France, Belgium, and Spain, offer inviolability or freedom from arrest or detention for criminal or civil matters without prior consent of the courts or legislature. Exceptions to inviolability exist if the parliamentarian is caught in the act of a crime. Critics of parliamentary immunity assert legislators often abuse the privilege and it elevates parliamentarians to a superior status from other citizens, placing them above the law they are intended to support and protect.

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