Editing Exile (section)

{{short description|Event by which a person is forced away from home}}
{{other uses}}
{{redirect2|Banish|Banishment}}
[[File:Napoleon sainthelene.jpg|thumb|''[[Napoleon]]'s Exile on [[Saint Helena]]'' by Franz Josef Sandman (1820)]]
[[File:The First Night in Exile.jpg|thumb|''The First Night in Exile''&nbsp;– This painting comes from a series illustrating the ''[[Ramayana]]'', a [[Hinduism|Hindu]] [[Epic poetry|epic poem]]. It depicts prince Rama, who is wrongly exiled from his father's kingdom, accompanied only by his wife and brother.]]
[[File:Dante exile.jpg|thumb|''[[Dante]] in Exile'' by Domenico Petarlini]]

'''Exile''' or '''banishment''' is primarily penal expulsion from one's native [[country]], and secondarily [[expatriation]] or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suffer exile, but sometimes social entities like institutions (e.g. the [[Pope|papacy]] or a [[Government-in-exile|government]]) are forced from their homeland.

In [[Roman law]], {{lang|la|exsilium}} denoted both voluntary exile and banishment as a [[capital punishment]] alternative to death. [[Deportation]] was forced exile, and entailed the lifelong loss of citizenship and property. [[Relegatio]]n was a milder form of deportation, which preserved the subject's citizenship and property.<ref>{{citation | author=William Smith | entry=Banishment (Roman) | title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities | edition=3rd | year=1890 | pages=136–137| title-link=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities | author-link=William Smith (lexicographer) }}</ref>

The term [[diaspora]] describes group exile, both voluntary and forced. "[[Government in exile]]" describes a government of a country that has relocated and argues its legitimacy from outside that country. Voluntary exile is often depicted as a form of protest by the person who claims it, to avoid persecution and prosecution (such as tax or criminal allegations), an act of shame or repentance, or isolating oneself to be able to devote time to a particular pursuit.

Article 9 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] states that "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."