Editing Bill of attainder (section)

====Private bills====
{{main article|Private bill}}
{{About|legislation that affects a specific person|legislation proposed by a single MP|Private member's bill|section=yes}}

In the [[Westminster system]] (and especially in the United Kingdom), a similar concept is covered by the term "private bill" (a bill which upon passage becomes a private Act). Note however that "private bill" is a general term referring to a proposal for legislation applying to a specific person; it is only a bill of attainder if it punishes them; private bills have been used in some Commonwealth countries to effect divorce.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Paul |last1=Millar |first2=Sheldon |last2=Goldenberg |date=1998 |title=Explaining Child Custody Determinations in Canada |journal=Canadian Journal of Law and Society |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=209–225|doi=10.1017/S0829320100005792 |s2cid=147117606}}</ref> Other traditional uses of private bills include [[chartered company|chartering corporations]], changing the charters of existing corporations, granting monopolies, approving of public infrastructure and seizure of property for those, as well as enclosure of commons and similar redistributions of property. Those types of private bills operate to take away private property and rights from certain individuals, but are usually not called "bill of pains and penalties". Unlike the latter, Acts appropriating property with compensation are constitutionally uncontroversial as a form of [[Eminent domain|compulsory purchase]].

The last United Kingdom bill called a "Pains and Penalties Bill" was the [[Pains and Penalties Bill 1820]] and was passed by the House of Lords in 1820, but not considered by the House of Commons; it sought to divorce [[Caroline of Brunswick|Queen Caroline]] from [[George IV|King George IV]] and adjust her titles and property accordingly, on grounds of her alleged adultery, as did many private bills dealing with divorces of private persons.

No bills of attainder have been passed since 1820 in the UK.<ref>{{cite book | first=Zechariah Jr. | last=Chafee |title=Three Human Rights in the Constitution of 1787 at 97 |publisher=University of Kansas Press |date=1956}}</ref> Attainder as such remained a legal consequence of convictions in courts of law, but this ceased to be a part of punishment in 1870.<ref name="british-civil-wars">{{cite web |url=http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/impeachment-attainder.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040404002350/http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/glossary/impeachment-attainder.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 April 2004 |title=British Civil Wars, Commonwealth & Protectorate 1638–1660: Impeachment & Attainder |author=David Plant |work=British Civil Wars Project |access-date=28 July 2016}}</ref>