The crime of deliberately stirring up quarrels, fights, or lawsuits without legal justification in order to make money from them.
From Old French 'baraterie,' itself derived from 'barater' meaning 'to deceive.' The term entered English law vocabulary in the medieval period and remains part of maritime law today.
Barretry is still technically illegal in some places today, especially in maritime law—it's one of those ancient crimes that's stuck around because people have never stopped finding creative ways to exploit the legal system!
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