High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! An outlaw or bandit is a person living the lifestyle of outlawry; the word literally means "outside the law". In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" declared the subject to be "Caput gerat lupinum" and it followed not only that, since the subject was no longer human, he had no legal rights, but also that he could be killed on sight as if a wolf or wild animal. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system, since the outlaw could not use the law to protect himself if needed, such as from mob justice, and could be robbed or even murdered with impunity.