BOYCOTTING. - A boycott consists in an agreement entered into by several persons to break off economic relations with a third party; as well as in the action they exert upon other persons in order to induce them to adopt the same conduct. The breaking off of economic relations generally takes the form of de facto prohibiting the buying and selling of goods or preventing one or more employers from hiring workers. The boycott, as is evident, proves harmful to the persons against whom it is directed, but it often also harms those who resort to it; and it may have repercussions gravely affecting a country’s economy. For this reason, in certain legal systems, such as the Italian one (art. 507 Cod. pen.), it is regarded as an offence against the interest of the community. Morally, it may be justified only where an injustice has been suffered and there is no possibility of obtaining redress through legal means; provided that there is a certain proportion between the injury suffered and the injury inflicted.
The term derives from the surname of Captain James Boycott, administrator of the extensive estates of Lord Erne, an Irish landowner. His administration was so harsh that the tenants of one estate, having joined together in an association (1880), abandoned fields and herds and induced other tenants to follow them: James Boycott was compelled to leave his office and the country.