Sequestration

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this August 2005 by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

The term sequestration can have different meanings according to the context.

1 In Law
2 Biochemistry
3 Climate change
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] In Law

Sequestration, the act of removing, separating or seizing anything from the possession of its owner, particularly in law, of the taking possession of property under process of law for the benefit of creditors or the state.

The Latin sequestrare, to set aside or surrender, a late use, is derived from sequester, a depositary or trustee, one in whose hands a thing in dispute was placed till the dispute was settled; this was a term of Roman jurisprudence (cf. Digest L. 16,115). By derivation it must be connected with sequi, to follow; possibly the development in meaning may be follower, attendant, intermediary, hence trustee. In English "sequestered" means merely secluded, withdrawn.

In law, the term "sequestration" has many applications; thus it is applied to the act of a belligerent power which seizes the debts due from its own subject to the enemy power; to a writ directed to persons, "sequestrators," to enter on the property of the defendant and seize the goods; to the action of taking profits of a benefice to satisfy the creditors of the incumbent.

As the goods of the Church cannot be touched by a lay hand, the writ is issued to the bishop, and he issues the sequestration order to the church-wardens who collect the profits and satisfy the demand. Similarly when a benefice is vacant the church-wardens take out sequestration under the seal of the Ordinary and manage the profits for the next incumbent.

In the Scots law of bankruptcy the term "sequestration" is used of the taking of the bankrupt's estate by order of the court for the benefit of the creditors (see Bankruptcy, Scottish Bankruptcy Legislation).

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) has been established in the United Kingdom under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to reduce crime by sequestering the proceeds of crime; its powers include civil recovery through the High Court a new concept in UK law.

[edit] Biochemistry

In biochemistry, the term "sequestration" is used to indicate that a compound or metabolite is locked away so as to not to be readily available. The inhibition or prevention of normal ion behavior by combination with added materials, especially the prevention of metallic ion precipitation from solution by formation of a coordination compound with a phosphate.

[edit] Climate change

Main article: CO2 sequestration

With regards to climate change, the term "sequestration" denotes a technique for the permanent storage of Carbon Dioxide or other IR active compounds so they will not be released to the atmosphere where they would contribute to the greenhouse gas effect.