Exile and Expulsion

(Russian, vysylka), two related forms of response by the state to criminal or other antisocial acts.

Exile. Exile is a kind of criminal punishment, consisting of the removal of the convicted from the place of his residence and the prohibition against his living in certain places.

In Soviet penal law, exile is used either as principal or additional punishment. In the Principles of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics (1968), a maximum term of five years for exile has been established, both for principal and additional punishment. A minimum term for exile has been stipulated in the criminal codes of Union republics: two years in the criminal codes of the RSFSR and the Georgian, Kirghiz, Moldavian, Ukrainian, and Tadzhik SSR’s and one year in the criminal codes of the Azerbaijan, Armenian, Byelorussian, Kazakh, Latvian, Lithuanian, Turkmen, Uzbek, and Estonian SSR’s.

According to the criminal codes of all Union republics, exile cannot be imposed on persons who at the time of com-mission of the crime had not attained 18 years of age; according to the criminal codes of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Kazakh, Latvian, and Turkmen SSR’s, exile also cannot be imposed on pregnant women or on women with dependent children less than eight years old.

Returning unauthorized to the place of former residence or entering places prohibited as residences is considered to be evasion of exile. According to the criminal codes of the majority of the Union republics, unauthorized return of the exile to the place of his former residence or to other places of forbidden residence leads to the changing of the sentence of exile to deportation for the remaining term. In the USSR exile as a penal measure is very rarely applied.

Exile is found in the legislation of most capitalist countries.

Expulsion. Expulsion is the forced removal of a foreigner from the territory of the state or from any of its parts by order of the competent government body. Sometimes the term “expulsion of foreigners” also means nonadmission by the government of a certain foreigner to its territory or some part of it. The right of expulsion of foreigners is one of the inalienable rights of a sovereign state.

Expulsion of foreigners may have a personal (expulsion of an individual) or a mass character (expulsion of a group of persons). As late as 1892 an attempt was made in international law to classify all legal bases for expulsion of foreigners. Among these were entering the territory of a state through fraud and contrary to valid regulations of entry; living in the territory contrary to explicit prohibition; and being a menace to public health or “public morality.” The attempt was also made to provide for expulsion of beggars, vagrants, and other “elements that are a burden to society”; expulsion of those charged with serious crimes; expulsion of those charged with crimes committed abroad and subject to extradition according to domestic law of the country or international treaties; expulsion of those violating national security by actions not subject to punishment by domestic laws; expulsion of those guilty of attacks in the local press on the political order of the country of their stay; expulsion of those guilty of attacks on the government, nation, etc., in the foreign press; and expulsion of those guilty of threatening national security by their conduct in time of war or in the face of danger of war. However, no generally recognized rule establishing legal reasons for the expulsion of foreigners exists in international law up to the present. The competent government bodies have the right to expel foreigners at any time from the territory of the country without giving any explanation of the reasons for the expulsion to the government whose citizenship the expelled foreigner holds. Usually the foreigner would leave the country after receiving the expulsion order, without awaiting forced deportation. If it is not possible for the foreigner to leave the country within the time limit set by the authorities, confinement at a certain place and under certain conditions may be imposed on the foreigner subject to expulsion.

Expulsion of foreigners has a special character in wartime, when collective expulsion of citizens of the enemy country and its allies is enacted. The legality of expulsion of foreigners in that case is generally recognized in international law. During World War I and World War II, the belligerent countries resorted not to expulsion of foreigners but rather to their internment.

In the capitalist countries expulsion frequently takes the form of a repressive measure against so-called undesirable foreigners.

In the USSR and the other socialist countries, expulsion of foreigners is permitted only in exceptional cases; as a rule only foreigners who engage in anti-Soviet activities or violate Soviet legislation are expelled.