[Gay State Conservative]

"to amerce" & "amercement" - a couple of new words I learned on Free Republic the other day...

Well,one could argue that the penalty was inappropriate and/or excessive but she *was* speeding.IIRC she was doing something like 75 in a 65.

[kiryandil]

An amercement is a financial penalty in English law, common during the Middle Ages, imposed either by the court or by peers. The noun "amercement" lately derives from the verb to amerce, thus: the King amerces his subject, who offended some law. The term is of Anglo-Norman origin, (Law French, from French, from Latin), and literally means "being at the mercy of": a-merce-ment (English mercy is cognate).

While it is often synonymous with a fine, it differs in that a fine is a fixed sum prescribed by statute and was often voluntary, while an amercement is arbitrary.

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The reason I maintain that it's "arbitrary" is because usually the peasant is not the only one "violating the law" in instances like yours.