Licence to kill

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License to kill has at least two meanings. It can be defined as:

1. An official sanction by a government or government agency to a particular operative or employee to initiate the use of deadly force, presumably in furtherance of the government's aims or policies, or in carrying out the operative's assigned missions and presumably in an assassination or covert context rather than in an overtly military context.^[1]
2. An executioner has a licence to terminate the life of the person being executed. Thus, executioner's licence to kill has a limited scope, as it is issued only for the sole occasion of the execution. In this sense, a license to kill is a form of legal immunity: killing is part of said individual's official duties, and thus they cannot be legally sanctioned for their acts, just as (for instance) police are not liable for speeding tickets during car chases.

It is also sometimes used when referring to assisted suicide, or discontinuance of life support, especially by editorialists, who may use the phrase, possibly pejoratively, in reference to government sanction of either action.^{[citation needed]}

The idea of a licence to kill is popularly known from the James Bond novels and films (signified by the "00" designation given to the agents in Ian Fleming's and subsequent authors tales who are licensed to kill; Bond himself is famously agent 007), and has been used at least once by a headline writer.^[2] In reality, the legitimacy of deadly force usage from country to country is generally controlled by statute law, particular and direct executive orders, the common law, or military rules of engagement. In Britain, the Intelligence Services Act 1994^[3] authorizes the secretary of state to grant immunity from British prosecution to personnel when they engage in any acts abroad that would be illegal under British law, such as murder.^[4]

With the popularity of the James Bond films and the phrase being used as a tagline in the series, and an imitation James Bond film Lindsay Shonteff's Licensed to Kill in 1965, Mad magazine printed a drivers license type card for Bond as a basis for other celebrities being granted licence to do the things they were most known for (i.e. "Jerry Lewis License to Nauseate"). A similar concept took place in a comedy skit on Cedric the Entertainer Presents where Bond and a supervillain both realise that their licence to kill has expired and race to be first to renew their licence at a state registry office.

In time past, civilian ships on the high seas were given letters of marque by a nation-state to attack enemy shipping, in effect legalized piracy, a variation of a license to kill.

The actual existence of a "licence to kill" is debated. Some feel that the term is a mere literary device, popularized by novels and films, while others believe that such a licence exists in at least some countries, whether in the military, police or counter-intelligence services. In the literary sense, the licence is presumed to be a discretionary one; distributed rarely and requiring extensive training to obtain, granted only to a handful of covert agents of a state in the interest of national security. The agent is not necessarily expected to kill enemies as part of a mission, but may receive immunity from prosecution (in his own country) if in the agent's estimation, this became necessary to complete it.

During the 1970s, the dispersal of Israeli agents with what would amount to a "licence to kill" occurred during Operation Wrath of God. Teams of agents were supposedly assigned targets in international locations and given orders and permission to terminate those targets. While evidence for such operations does exist, the Israeli government denies that it targeted enemies for death.

In reality, such licences would run afoul of the laws of war: the covert agent would almost certainly be considered a spy or perhaps even a common criminal if murder is committed in a foreign country. For this reason, few governments, if any, are willing to disclose the existence of a licence to kill.

See also

• Castle Doctrine
• Fifth Freedom
• Kiri sute gomen, the equivalent in feudal Japan.
• Rules of engagement
• Deadly force
• Execution warrant
• State terrorism
• Terminate with extreme prejudice
• Vigilantism
• Tyrannicide

References

External links

• "Is revived CIA 'license to kill' overkill during war?" editorial from USA Today editorial arguing against the CIA "license to kill" authority (November 6, 2001)
• Foreign Correspondent: Pakistan - Licence to Kill, a BBC television documentary about murder of women in Pakistan in situations involving divorce or adultery