embracery

The legal term "embracery" comes from the Old Fr.

It preserved the common law offence of embracery (which was later abolished by the Bribery Act 2010).

The writ was finally abolished by the Juries Act 1825, except as regards jurors guilty of embracery.

Maintenance (not including embracery)

The Juries Act 1825, in abolishing writs of attaint, made a special exemption as regards jurors guilty of embracery (s.61).

In December 1889 a jury found Cuddy guilty of embracery, an attempt to influence a judge or jury by corrupt means, and he was fined $750.

The Maintenance and Embracery Act 1540 (32 Hen 8 c 9) is an Act of the Parliament of England.

Maintenance and champerty have not been crimes or torts since the passing of the Criminal Law Act 1967, though embracery was a crime until the Bribery Act 2010.

The false verdict of a jury, whether occasioned by embracery or otherwise, was formerly considered criminal, and jurors were severely punished, being proceeded against by writ of attaint.

In the Middle Ages the term was then applied to the uniforms and other devices, worn by those who accepted the privileges and obligations of embracery, or livery and maintenance.

It authorises the citation, by short titles, of English statutes applied to Ireland by Poynings' Act 1495 and by the Maintenance and Embracery Act 1634, and of pre-Union Irish statutes.

See section 3 of the Maintenance and Embracery Act 1540, the 5 Eliz 1 c 9 (An Act for the Punyshement of suche persones as shall procure or comit any wyllful Perjurye) and the Perjury Act 1728.

The last conviction for embracery in the UK was at Caernarvon Crown Court in November 1975 but it was quashed by the Court of Appeal the following year on the initiative of Lord Justice Lawton, who said that the offence was obsolescent.