Statute of limitations
enactment in a common-law legal system
A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. In most jurisdictions, such periods exist for both criminal law and civil law such as contract law and property law, though often under different names and with varying details.
When the time which is specified in a statute of limitations runs out, a claim may no longer be filed, or if filed, it may be subject to dismissal if the defense against that claim is raised that the claim is time-barred as having been filed after the statutory limitations period.
When a statute of limitations expires in a criminal case, the courts no longer have jurisdiction. In many jurisdictions with statutes of limitation there is no time limit for dealing with particularly serious crimes.
In civil law systems, such provisions are typically part of their civil and criminal codes. The cause of action dictates the statute of limitations, which can be reduced or extended in order to ensure a full and fair trial. The intention of these laws is to facilitate resolution within a "reasonable" period of time. What amount of time is considered "reasonable" varies from country to country. In some countries, as in the US, it may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and state (or province, etc.) to state.
The public source identifies “Statute of limitations” as enactment in a common-law legal system. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Statute, limitations and enactment.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1899048.
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This entry incorporates text from “Statute of limitations” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.