FOREST-LAWS, are peculiar laws, different from the common law of England. Before the making of the Carta de Foresta (granted by Henry III. A.D. 1224, and confirmed by Edward I. in 1299), offences committed in the forest were punished at the pleasure of the king in the severest manner. By this charter many forests were disforested and stripped of their oppressive privileges, and regulations were made for the government of those which remained; in particular, killing the king's deer was declared to be no longer a capital offence, but only punishable by fine, imprisonment, or abjuration of the realm. Still, in this charter there were some grievous articles, which, however, were modified by the clemency of later princes; and indeed the forest laws may now be said to be practically abolished.