Approvement

English Law. 1. The inclosing of common land within the lord's waste, so as to leave egress and regress to a tenant who is a commoner.

2. The augmentation of the profits of land.

3. The act by which a person indicted of treason or felony, and arraigned for the same, confesses the same before any plea pleaded, and accuses others, his accomplices, of the same crime, in order to obtain his pardon. This practice is disused. In modern practice, an accomplice is permitted to give evidence against his associates. In Vermont, on a trial for adultery, it was held that a particeps criminis was not a competent witness, because no person can be allowed to testify his own guilt or turpitude to convict another.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.