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Immunity and impunity sound alike and both refer to some sort of protection. Impunity, derives from the Latin word meaning “not punishment”, and means protection from the harmful consequences of an action. Immunity is broader and refers to protection from duty, liability and illness, as well as prosecution and punishment.
immunity
impunity
More information on the words discussed in the video, including sound files, examples of usage, common mistakes and encyclopaedic information, can be found in TransLegal's Legal English Dictionary.
Hello. I'm Robin and welcome to TransLegal's lesson of the week. Today we are going to try to understand the differences between the two sound-alike words immunity and impunity.
Now these two words do sound alike, they're spelled very similarly and are often used together to create an effect. And in fact they have a rather similar meaning in that they both refer to some sort of protection. However, impunity is a much narrower word. It derives from the Latin words which together mean not punishment and it means protection from punishment or from any harmful consequences of an action.
So for instance, it is often said that the Mafia operated with impunity for many years because of the cooperation of corrupt police officers. It is often said that having freedom of speech gives us impunity for any statements that we might make that are against the government.
Now when we get to the word immunity, that's a good deal broader and it refers to protection not just from punishment but from a duty, from a liability or even from an illness. So there are popular phrases in which the term immunity is used. For instance, diplomatic immunity, that is what diplomats get when they are posted in foreign countries which protects them from any kind of arrest or prosecution for crime and indeed even protects them from having to pay taxes. In New York for instance, there are many diplomats who live there because they're there for the United Nations and since they don't have to pay their fines for illegal parking they park all over the place which makes citizens of New York very angry because the diplomats take advantage of their diplomatic immunity to break the law in a way that is very irritating to law-abiding citizens.
We also have the concept of executive immunity. And that refers to a system in which, in some countries, presidents and vice-presidents and other people at the top of a government are protected from any kind of criminal arrest or punishment or charges. This derives from the earlier sovereign immunity which protected kings and queens from any kinds of criminal punishment based on the idea that the king was somehow divine and the king could do no wrong. These days executive immunity is considered to be a very undemocratic system and it is not widespread in the western world so much.
Then of course there's the concept of immunity from prosecution and that occurs typically in a criminal case when there is a co-conspirator in the crime who maybe knows a lot of important information about the crime that the prosecutor would like him or her to testify about a trial. However, this particular witness or co-conspirator is afraid that if he or she testifies he will say something incriminating. Therefore, in order to get this person's testimony, the prosecutor grants immunity from prosecution to this witness.
And then of course we have one more meaning, which is not a legal meaning but a medical meaning, and that is immunity from some sort of illness or disease. Some of us get immunity, for instance if we've had diseases as children we probably will be immune from them as adults, otherwise we get immunizations, which are kinds of vaccinations or shots to protect us from other diseases.
So that's all for today. Thanks for listening. Please leave your comments or questions in the box provided below and don't forget all feedback is good feedback. We hope to hear from you. Thanks.
Very clear indeed! simply…excellent!
Thank you for the information, please keep sending your lessons; very informative.
Very clear and helpful explanation. I like all your lessons, please send more if possible
thanks, there is nothing to say. your lesson is perfect and comprehensive
The explanation is very clear and useful!The differences are obvious now for me
I’m an English Language Teacher, and I’m currently teaching a Legal English course, and these lessons, quizzes and legal terms have been really useful. Thanks.
Very great and usefull indeed
I love your lessons. Please keep sending them. Thank you
Your explanation is suberb
Thank you
GREAT LESSON! You are the best teacher ever!
just awesome
Thank you very much. This is a very useful Language website and I, as a teacher of English, benefit a lot by following it. However, some of the vocabulary used in the narration may be very difficult to understand for our learners of English, particularly those who learn English as a second or foreign language.
Of course, I do understand that when it comes to Legal Terms, apt words are necessary to explain the usage of those terms. Therefore, what I suggest to you, if I may, is to use more simpler words so that a learner who is confused between the words “immunity and impunity” will not find it more difficult to understand some of the words that are used to describe this pair. For example, while explaining the word ‘lion’, using ‘a large wild cat found in Africa’ is easier for a learner to follow than using the technical term ‘feline’!
Thanks, Kumar. We’ll keep this in mind.
Thanks. Great.