spoliation

noun

1. (archaic, uncountable)The action of spoliating, or forcibly seizing property; pillage, plunder; also, the state of having property forcibly seized; (countable) an instance of this; a robbery, a seizure.

   “The weapons of the empire had been […] an unequalled genius for organization, and an uniform system of external law and order. This was generally a real boon to conquered nations, because it substituted a fixed and regular spoliation for the fortuitous and arbitrary miseries of savage warfare: […]”

   “How many people out of the suit, Jarndyce and Jarndyce has stretched forth its unwholesome hand to spoil and corrupt, would be a very wide question. […] In trickery, evasion, procrastination, spoliation, botheration, under false pretences of all sorts, there are influences that can never come to good.”

   “The ritual condemnation of foreign corporations' spoliations of the resources of developing countries and their elevation to the level of international concern have obscured the problem of spoliations by national officials of the wealth of the states of which they are temporary custodians. […] In some cases, absconding officials have left the economies of their countries ransacked and destroyed.”

2. (broadly, uncountable)The action of destroying or ruining; destruction, ruin.

   “Marks of violence were visible in every part; a cupboard had been forced open, and the contents of a chest of drawers were scattered about the room. The shop bore even more evident signs of spoliation—that reckless wastefulness which seems the constant companion of cruelty; but little of the grocery appeared to have been touched, excepting the sweet things.”

   “There is much sad evidence, too, of the spoliation and dereliction of vanished industry: tips, slag-heaps and derelict colliery-screens among which the ubiquitous, nomad mountain sheep graze unconcernedly.”

3. (broadly, historical, uncountable)The action of an incumbent (“holder of an ecclesiastical benefice”) wrongfully depriving another of the emoluments of a benefice.

   “A Benefice is ſaid to be vacant de Facto, and not de Jure, vvhen the Poſſeſſion thereof is loſt by Spoliation or Intruſion, and the like: […]”

4. (broadly, countable, historical)A lawsuit brought or writ issued by an incumbent against another, claiming that the latter has wrongfully taken the emoluments of a benefice.

   “[W]here one ſaith to the Patron, that his Clerk is dead, whereupon he preſents another: there the firſt Incumbent, who was ſuppoſed to be dead, may have a Spoliation againſt the other.”

5. (broadly, uncountable)The intentional destruction of, or tampering with, a document so as to impair its evidentiary value.
6. (broadly, uncountable)The systematic forcible seizure of property during a crisis or state of unrest such as that caused by war, now regarded as a crime; looting, pillage, plunder; (countable) an instance of this.

   “Spoliation of Jewish property by Nazi authorities occurred on a large scale during World War II.”

   “We propose at this time to present evidence disclosing what the conspirators intended to do with conquered territories, called by them Lebensraum, after they had succeeded in overpowering the victims of their aggressions. We have broadly divided this subject into two categories: Germanization and spoliation. […] By spoliation, we mean the plunder of public and private property and, in general, the exploitation of the people and the natural resources of occupied countries.”

   “[A]s culture continues to suffer spoliation at the hands of individuals who are not part of typical armed conflicts, and as minority and other groups continue to see the destruction of their culture, the international legal community may need to rethink their hesitancy to apply the tools of criminal law to cultural genocide.”

7. (broadly, historical, uncountable)The government-sanctioned action or practice of plundering neutral ships at sea; (countable) an instance of this.

   “Immediately after the rupture with Great Britain in February, 1793, France, by waging war with nearly all Europe, and while oppressed by famine and the starving policy of England, commenced her spoliations on our commerce. Our ships were plundered as well by the armed vessels of France as by innumerable privateers, equipped for the purpose of supplying France with provisions from the only resource left her, the commerce of neutral nations.”