Do other countries allow the Head of Government to pardon people convicted of crimes the way the USA does?

September 20, 2009 3:06 PM

Do other countries allow the Head of Government to pardon people convicted of crimes the way the USA does?

The President of the United States can pardon any person who has committed a federal crime, except in cases of impeachment, as outlined in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution.

Do any other more-or-less democratic countries give their Head of Government or, where such a position exists, the Head of State, to overrule the courts by granting a pardon to anybody they like?

posted by edavidoff to law & government (9 comments total)

Wikipedia on "Pardons".

The Governor General of Canada can grant clemency, but not pardons.
The President of France can grant pardons.
The President of Germany can grant pardons. (This is not the Chancellor.)
etc.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:16 PM on September 20

Wikipedia has a section on pardons and clemency by country under the main entry for pardon.
posted by amyms at 3:16 PM on September 20

Since the flagmeisters have wielded their axe: the pardon power is historically the prerogative of the monarch, since all law proceeds down from him/her. In constitutional monarchies or weak presidential systems, recommendations for pardons generally go through the head of government and have to satisfy certain criteria, but it's still technically possible for the head of state to refuse or, rarer still, grant arbitrary pardons.

The more interesting examples are those countries that don't endow the pardon power to a single individual -- such as Switzerland, where executive authority has always been distributed.

But it's wrong to think of pardons "overruling the courts". Again, it's reaching back to historical precedent, but pardons are known as "acts of grace", and the religious language reflects the idea of the monarch as God's representative.
posted by holgate at 3:21 PM on September 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

Your question has pretty much been answered, but I'll comment that under the British (or at least Canadian) system, this power is often deemed the Prerogative of Mercy.
posted by Lemurrhea at 3:33 PM on September 20

It's difficult to argue that presidential pardons in the U.S. "overrule the coursts" in any nefarious manner when the Constitution specifically grants that power. Without such a grant of power, courts would be able to abuse their power free of corrective action.
posted by justcorbly at 3:56 PM on September 20

The Governor General of Canada can grant clemency, but not pardons.

The head of government is the Prime Minister of Canada.
posted by oaf at 8:07 PM on September 20

Agree with justcorbly- it's just one of the checks and balances. If the courts act badly, the president can override. If the president goes around pardoning people he shouldn't, the congress can vote to impeach.
posted by gjc at 9:00 PM on September 20

If the courts act badly, the president can override.

Or the courts can act entirely correctly and a pardon might still be considered appropriate. One of the standard responses in the "ticking time-bomb" debate on torture is that one might commit a crime to prevent a greater crime, throw oneself on the mercy of the courts, but if convicted, receive a pardon.
posted by holgate at 10:10 PM on September 20 [1 favorite has favorites]

The head of government is the Prime Minister of Canada. Indeed, but the head of state is HM The Queen, whose representative is the Governor General. In the UK, the Queen still theoretically excersises the perogative of mercy (i.e. pardons) but it is, in practice, her Government which carries out that responsibility on her behalf (as I suspect actually happens in Canda).

It would cause substantial constitutional issues if the Queen were to start pardoning her friends speeding fines or whatever - it is one of those powers she has which is only theoretically vested in her, but practically the Government of the day uses. The US practice whereby outgoing Presidents pardon friends and acquaintances seems outrageous to UK ears...
posted by prentiz at 6:05 AM on September 21