Legal Definitions - summa injuria

Summa injuria refers to the most profound or severe injury, harm, or injustice that can be inflicted upon an individual or a group.

Here are some examples illustrating this concept:

• Imagine a scenario where an innocent person is wrongly convicted of a heinous crime, based on fabricated evidence, and subsequently spends several decades imprisoned. During this time, they lose their youth, their family connections, and their opportunity to build a life. Upon their eventual exoneration, the legal system acknowledges the immense wrong committed.

  This situation represents a summa injuria because the individual suffered the greatest possible injustice: the loss of their freedom and a significant portion of their life due to a fundamental failure of justice, causing irreparable harm.

• Consider a large corporation that knowingly and deliberately pollutes a community's primary water source for many years to cut costs, despite being aware of the severe health risks. As a result, numerous residents develop chronic illnesses, and some even die prematurely, while the environment suffers long-term damage.

  This constitutes a summa injuria because the corporation's actions inflicted the greatest injury upon the community, causing widespread suffering, illness, and death, along with devastating environmental harm, all for financial gain.

• Suppose a government implements a policy that systematically strips a specific ethnic minority group of their property, citizenship rights, and access to education and healthcare, forcing them into poverty and marginalization over generations.

  This scenario exemplifies a summa injuria as it represents a systemic and profound injustice, causing the greatest possible harm to an entire group by denying them fundamental human rights and opportunities, leading to enduring suffering and disadvantage.