habeas corpus
The campaign for justice on behalf of the Windrush generation is not just about political scalps. It is about a burning injustice that stretches from 10 Downing Street into the lives of thousands of British citizens. At its heart the Windrush crisis is about an immigration policy that was allowed to – even designed to – dehumanise, demonise and victimise British citizens. …
Each case is directly linked to a policy that ignores the principle of habeas corpus by imprisoning innocent people without reference to a judge, jury or evidence of guilt. (Skip the rest)
今回取り上げる表現は、habeas corpus /héɪbiəs kˈɔɚpəs/ です。corpus は言語学の分野では「コーパス」としてよく知られており、「言語資料」を意味します。では、今回の habeas corpus はどんな意味でしょうか。以下で確認していきます。
まず意味を Cambridge Dictionary をみると、“a legal order that states that a person in prison must appear before and be judged by a court of law before he or she can be forced by law to stay in prison” とあり、LDOCE には “a law which says that a person can only be kept in prison following a court’s decision” と定義されていました。
次に語源を OED をみると、“Late Middle English: Latin, literally ‘you shall have the body (in court)’.” とあります。
以上のことから、habeas corpus は法律用語で、「人身保護令状」を意味することがわかりました。(OkaUchi)
