Abolition

An act by which a thing is extinguished, abrogated or annihilated as the abolition of slavery is the destruction of slavery.

2. In the civil and French law abolition is used nearly synonymously with pardon, remission, grace. There is, however, this difference; grace is the generic term; pardon, according to those laws, is the clemency which the prince extends to a man who has participated in a crime, without being a principal or accomplice; remission is made in cases of involuntary homicides, and self-defence. Abolition is different: it is used when the crime cannot be remitted. The prince then may by letters of abolition remit the punishment, but the infamy remains, unless letters of abolition have been obtained before sentence.

The term abolition is used in the German law in the same sense as in the French law. The term abolition is derived from the civil law, in which it is sometimes used synonymously with absolution.
   

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