Stolas: Um... I mean...aren't you going to....you know... execute me?
Satan: Hah! Aw no, 'course not. You are a Goetia.
Stolas: But I... committed a heinous crime!
Satan: Yeah you did! But, you are demon royalty sooo... your life has actual worth.
Satan: Hah! Aw no, 'course not. You are a Goetia.
Stolas: But I... committed a heinous crime!
Satan: Yeah you did! But, you are demon royalty sooo... your life has actual worth.
— Helluva Boss, "Mastermind"
In the modern day, the rich and powerful may say Screw the Rules, I Have Money! or connections, but in many past societies they didn't need to; It was baked into the legal system that they were better than everyone else.
In such societies an aristocrat might very well get away with murder, there might be limits to what they are allowed, but whatever punishment they might suffer will surely be lower than what a commoner would suffer for the same crime. Of course, these immunities aren't likely to last past the revolution, and those who got away with murder might find themselves suffering it..
A common feature of Blue Blood or a Fantastic Caste System. May be a reason why Aristocrats Are Evil. This differs from Screw the Rules, I Have Money! and Screw the Rules, I Have Connections! in that those tropes are about bypassing the legal process through illegal (bribery or cronyism) means rather than having special privileges written into the rules. Sister Trope to Elite Agents Above the Law, where a special class of government operatives are given legal immunity. Super-Trope to Droit du Seigneur, which is specific to aristocrats having a legal right to rape their subjects. Often this benefits a Silver Spoon Troublemaker.
While fictional examples and those based on historical examples are allowed, No Recent Examples, Please!
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- One Piece: The Celestial Dragons, simply by virtue of being the descendants of the twenty kings who founded the World Government, are completely exempt from any kind of law and are allowed to do whatever they please. This includes being able to kill anyone that defies them on the spot (including children), the ability to purchase and own slaves despite slavery supposedly being outlawed by the World Government 200 years ago,note and the ability to create or change laws whenever they please. The main reason why nobody dares to stand up to the World Nobles despite how weak and frail they are is because they are protected by the Government and the Marines, and anyone who harms or attempts to harm a World Noble will face the wrath of a Marine Admiral, who will be immediately dispatched along with a Marine Battleship to deal with the perpetrators. Although the threat of a Marine Admiral doesn't stop Luffy from attacking Saint Charlos during the Saboady Arc.
Comic Books
- Usagi Yojimbo: Many unscrupulous samurai abuse kiri-sute gomen, such as the one who killed Kitsune's mentor Sachiko because he suspected she'd stolen his wallet.
Fan Works
- The Rigel Black Chronicles: Purebloods are much better protected in law than half-bloods or muggle-born. As a result, Harry and Archie make their contingency plans based on the premise that if everything falls apart and the Ruse is found out, they can afford for Archie to be discovered, just not Harry. A pureblood impersonating a half-blood would get a slap on the wrist; a half-blood impersonating a pureblood will go to Azkaban. Lord Riddle's next round of legislation, if it passes, will make things even worse, restricting access even to things like insurance. After the Ruse does fall, pureblood Aldon Rosier offers to marry Harry to make it harder for anyone to prosecute her for her part in it.
Films — Live-Action
- Kind Hearts and Coronets: Downplayed. Following murdering nearly all of his family to gain the title of Duke of Chalfont, Louis Mazzini finds himself arrested for the murder of his old rival Lionel (which ironically he was actually innocent of). His newly gained title does grant himself several privileges (such as being able to hold his trial in front of the House of Lords and getting a silken rope) but this does little to actually help him, as the trial still ends with him being found guilty and sentenced to hang.
- The Purge Universe: Government officials rated 10 or higher cannot be attacked during the Purge. This is deconstructed, as the New Founding Fathers' self-perceived invincibility convinces said officials that they can last one day without this law to get their other 10+ rivals killed. They don't. Later on, the purges which the NFF exacerbated become so violent that they produce extremists who don't give a shit about the law or caste, putting down the NFF as an afterthought during their bloody rampages.
Literature
- Ascendance of a Bookworm: Nobles can explicitly do what they want to commoners without suffering consequences, to the point of having a reputation of executing commoners for the "crime" of talking back. If any act of aggression or abuse happens between people of sufficiently different status, the person or group of highest status is always considered in the right, even if both parties are commoners or nobles. The only way to maybe get around this is for the lower-status party is to have connections with someone of higher status than the party who wronged them. Magically Binding Contracts are popular among commoner merchants rich enough to afford them because they allow them to make deals with nobles all while giving the noble side a strong incentive to respect their end of it; breaching such a contract literally results in a Divine Punishment.
- In Asian Saga novel Shogun, Blackthorn is warned early on that except for strokes of pragmatism, samurai can essentially do whatever they want to non-samurai. When told that Blackthorne is concerned for Mura's village because Yabu is essentially holding it hostage to force him to learn Japanese, Fujiko is only concerned that Yabu is willing to carelessly dispose of able-bodied workers and seems almost amused that such value was placed on peasants.
- City of Bones by Martha Wells: The city-state of Charisat legally stratifies foreigners and non-humans, non-citizen residents, citizen scholars and tradespeople, and patricians, with increasing rights and privileges. Non-citizens can't even handle coins without a prohibitively expensive license.
- A Discussed Trope in Clouds Of Witness, in which the Duke of Denver, Lord Peter's brother, is charged with murder and has to be tried "by his peers" - the whole House of Lords. Parliament even has to appoint a Lord High Steward for the occasion, as an ordinary judge isn't allowed to preside over the trial of a peer of the realm. (Within fifteen years of the novel's setting, this would be abolished, dating the work somewhat) Lord Peter discusses what will happen if his brother is found guilty, and it is mentioned that peers aren't executed by beheading any more, and that the last one to be found guilty of murder, the fourth Earl Ferrers
, was hanged.
- In the Discworld, Commander Sam Vimes runs the City Watch and inherited a system where the nobility of Ankh-Morpork considered that the Watch was there to serve them, as mere "thief-takers" who should call at the back door like any other tradesmen. The old nobility also considered themselves to be above the law, which didn't apply to them. Vimes set about fighting his own version of the Class War, ordered his watchmen to call at the front door of any noble residence just to make the point, and did shocking things like arresting and charging a Duke's son for the trivial offence of shooting a servant.
- Fire & Blood: The Doctrine of Exceptionalism created by King Jaeherys I Targaryen and the Faith of the Seven dictates that House Targaryen, being directly favoured by the Gods, is exempt from certain laws and customs binding lesser humans, most notably the prohibition against incest.
- Played with in Look to Windward, possibly inverted. It is never stated outright that the highest castes of Chelgrian society are immune to prosecution, but it’s a reasonable assumption. What is clear is that the lowest castes, the Invisibles, have no legal protection whatsoever, and when Eweirl kills an Invisible in a drunken rage he goes unpunished despite Quilan witnessing and reporting him, with the authorities calling it a tragic accident.
- Nevermoor: Members of the Wundrous Society are given several privileges in the Free State and one of the big ones is that Wunsoc has their own legal system for their members that officially supersedes that of the rest of the country. Thus, if a Wunsoc member commits a crime, they fall under Wunsoc's jurisdiction, and the Society is allowed to sort it out however they see fit — or simply let it slide — and there's nothing anyone else can do about it. Jupiter exploits this when he becomes Morrigan's patron; she was illegally smuggled into the Free State for her own safety, so he sets her up to join Wunsoc, knowing that they won't care enough to deport her, especially if she proves useful.
- The Reckoners Trilogy: After the emergence of Epics, the U.S. Government signed the Capitulation Act into law, which basically gave these superhuman beings the ability to do whatever they wanted, from mass murder to creating their own fiefdoms within the now Fractured States.
- Vorkosigan Saga While there appears to have been significant and not-universally-welcomed erosion of this principle both in theory and practice on Barrayar since the Time of Isolation ended, ruling Counts and their confirmed heirs are still immune to prosecution outside of the Council of Counts. This is a major element in the denouement of A Civil Campaign, as one of the two contenders for the vacant Vorryuter Countship is desperately scrambling to secure confirmation because his conspiracy to have his rival gelded had been exposed and the Vorbarr Sultana Municipal Guardsmen were waiting outside the chamber.
- The Wheel of Time:
- The nation of Tear gives the nobility broad legal privileges over the commoners. Until The Chosen One — a Farm Boy by birth — takes over and enforces legal reforms, commoners are unable even to accuse nobles of crimes.
- The Aiel Proud Warrior Race forbid foreigners from entering their country with three exceptions: peddlers for trade, gleemen for pleasure, and the Tuatha'an Actual Pacifist Wandering Culture, whom they avoid like the plague.
- The Wise Man's Fear: Downplayed in the Iron Law — priests are tried for crimes in a church court rather than the lay court. It's unclear whether they're exempt from certain laws; the main benefit is that they can formally argue their case and present evidence rather than suffer the whims of a Hanging Judge.
Religion
- The Bible: Notably averted; the Old Testament books of Law (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) lay out the legal code God expects the Jewish people to live by once they enter Israel; compared to contemporary nations (see the Code of Hammurabi under Real Life below) these laws make no exceptions for wealth, status, or social group (aside from laying out the specific role and responsibilities of priests, which didn't include protection from prosecution). There's certainly some Values Dissonance regarding the severity of certain punishments, and what constitutes a "crime" by modern standards, but they were written to be applied universally.
Tabletop Games
- Ars Magica: Priests in Mythic Europe have the right to be tried in ecclesiastical court — generally a better organized, fairer, more lenient, and much less arbitrary process than the local lay court, especially where feudal lords are involved.
- BattleTech: Warriors of the Clans, thanks to being at the top of the Fantastic Caste System, are generally given carte blanche to treat members of lower castes however they want, even killing them for such infractions as talking back. Though there are still limits to how much a warrior can get away with: flagrant abuse of a lower caste member for no reason will likely result in the warrior facing some sort of punishment, though it usually isn't too much, particularly if the warrior is high-ranking and capable of taking anyone who speaks against them in unarmed combat. In practice, how bad this is varies by Clan — the letter of the rules may be the same, but the Clans' cultures have different standards for when treatment crosses over into flagrant abuse worthy of censure by other Warriors and varying perspectives on how "low" specific other castes are.
- Ironclaw: In Calabria commoners are subject to "Low Justice" while nobles have to be tried under "High Justice." Any noble may mete out Low Justice punishments on the spot while nobles accused of crimes must go through a trial presided over by a higher noble. Zhongguo has a formal court system and grants every accused a trial, but nobles can still only be tried by magistrates with noble titles of their own.
- Pathfinder: In semifeudal Taldor, ruling nobles are essentially entitled to do whatever they like on their own lands as long as it doesn't attract the ire of a higher-ranking noble. Commoners have essentially no recourse except appealing to the Imperial Senate, which is likewise made up of aristocrats. This is a plot point multiple times in the War for the Crown Adventure Path.
- Warhammer Fantasy:
- Bretonnian commoners are bound by a far stricter set of laws than nobles, not least because feudal lords may impose almost any law they wish upon their peasants. Most peasant communities have their own informal courts to resolve internal matters without getting nobles involved whenever possible.
- Bretonnian shepherds are exempt from some of the legal restrictions on peasants traveling and carrying weapons. Consequently, one can often find companies of well-trained, well-armed itinerant shepherds proactively guarding their single sheep.
- In Middenheim, City Guards and militiamen are tried by their own officers, and these officers themselves, along with Kislevite mercenaries, are tried by Middenmarshalls.
- In Marienburg, the Phoenix King has exclusive jurisdiction over crime committed by and against elven residents of Elfsgemeente; in the facts, the judge is his local representative. Additionally, craftsmen are tried by their guilds in cases concerning their profession while priests are tried by their temples.
Video Games
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: Within the Sith Empire, Sith can essentially do whatever they like with no oversight except to other Sith, who essentially only get involved if they think it serves their interests or if it amuses them.
Web Animation
- Helluva Boss: Satan's court readily executes lesser demons, especially imps, for crimes that Goetic royalty suffer lesser punishments. As seen in "Mastermind" when Blitzo is sentenced to death for stealing a Goetic grimoire and using it to go to Earth, only for Prince Stolas to come forward and take the credit for his imp lover's crimes, which only gets him stripped of his powers and title for a century.
Webcomics
- Surviving the Game as a Barbarian: In Rafdonia, the Barbarian tribe is exempt from the laws against causing offense to the nobility, on the grounds that barbarians can't be expected to know court etiquette.
Western Animation
- BoJack Horseman: In "Feel Good Story", Diane is investigating the morally bankrupt Jerimiah Whitewhale, believing that his unsafe business practices led to the recent death of his employee. Whitewhale openly admits he flat out murdered Minnowman (because he took too many bathroom breaks) and isn't afraid of punishment, as Congress just passed a law making it legal to commit murder if you're a billionaire. This level of corruption is implied to be the reason why Bojack gets off a negligent murder charge and a drunken crime spree with a few years of prison time. He was the (oblivious) face of these corrupt elites, meaning that if he was fully prosecuted, it would set a precedent for other high society types to be judged accordingly, so they'd pull strings behind Bojack's back to get him off relatively easy.
Real Life
- The Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest known collections of law, refers to three social classes, awīlum, muškēnum, and wardum/amtum. While the meaning of those terms has been hotly debated, crimes committed by a muškēnum against an awīlum are generally more harshly punished than the inverse (The iconic concept of "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" only applied when victim and perpetrator were of the same social class).
- In feudal Japan samurai had the right of kiri-sute gomen, which allowed them to strike down a person of a lower caste who compromised their honor on the spot. There were some restrictions, only a single blow was allowed and certain professions such as doctors were exempt.
- One of the recurring issues the Catholic Church and European states clashed over during the Middle Ages was that people belonging to the Church (even students of theology) were to be tried by a religious court, which naturally inflicted lower punishments for the same crime, not to mention kings not being happy about having to share judicial power with people supposedly detached from the world. This was one of the chief reasons of conflict between Henry II and Thomas Becket, which led to Becket's martyrdom.
- British peers had a right to trial by their own peers, of the whole House of Lords from 1695, prior to then, their jurors, of at least 23 in number were picked from the House of Lords. This made it more difficult to even bring charges because they would have to be things that their peers would agree were even crimes. It was slowly eroded over time and fully abolished in 1948.
- It was also possible from 1547 to 1841 to claim the "privilege of peerage" to get out of punishment for their first offense, which was then removed when the 7th Earl of Cardigan said he would use it to get out of trouble if convicted of duelling (he was acquitted of the charges).
- Ancient Chinese dynasties, such as the Song Dynasty, featured both high and low justice, albeit not in the form as it might be understood in the modern day—high justice was a 'cosmic' justice that ensured the community remained functioning and cohesive even if an individual must suffer unfairly, while low justice was more about the equal treatment of individuals under the law. This also meant that nobles, by and large, had relatively free hands against the commoners as they called on high justice, often using it to justify placing the noble need above the common one, such that commoners generally could not file claims against nobles for any but the most egregious of crimes.
- Because of the divide between high and low justice, Judge Bao Zheng became a popular and respected figure specifically because he averted this expectation, in that he would hear commoner claims against nobles, which was generally unheard-of. Further, Judge Bao was also incorruptible, refusing to be bought off by bribes or bow to threats. His literary tradition reinforces this aversion of legal immunity with his three most commonly depicted accessories: the imperial sword (allowing him to speak with the authority of the Emperor), the golden staff (allowing him to chastise the Emperor directly with the authority of the Emperor's father), and the triple guillotines (allowing him the right to execute anyone who broke the law severely—even nobles and royals, who would normally be immune).
- Because of the divide between high and low justice, Judge Bao Zheng
- One of the cornerstones of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was an ever-increasing list of noble privileges. They included a progressively greater exemption from the legal system of the Commonwealth (along with a separate set of punishments for the same crimes, but based on class) and, which was probably the most destructive of all privileges, eventually disabling royal legal court and, by proxy, legal system of any kind for nobility. This effectively meant that by mid 16th century nobles and clergy could do anything and the only court that could go after them was a collegial one among other nobles - and this even covered for foreign nobles, too. Even if somehow such a court was held, there was nobody to enforce its verdicts, short of straight-out vigilantism. Sufficiently to say, this very quickly led to such ridiculous levels of lawlessness and semi-anarchy it gained infamy all across Europe.
