emancipation

The act by which one who was unfree, or under the power and control of another, is rendered free, or set at liberty and made his own master. A surrender and renunciation of the correlative rights and duties touching the care, custody and earnings of a child. Schumm v. Schumm, 122 N.J.Super. 146, 299 A.2d 423, 425.

The term is principally used with reference to the emancipation of a minor child by its parents, which involves an entire surrender of the right to the care, custody, and earnings of such child as well as a renunciation of parental duties. Glover v. Glover, 44 Tenn.App. 712, 319 S.W.2d 238, 241.

The emancipation may be express, as by voluntary agreement of parent and child, or implied from such acts and conduct as import consent, and it may be conditional or absolute, complete or partial. Complete emancipation is entire surrender of care, custody, and earnings of child, as well as renunciation of parental duties. And a "partial emancipation" frees a child for only a part of the period of minority, or from only a part of the parent's rights, or for some purposes, and not for others. There is no fixed age when a child becomes emancipated (though it is usually upon reaching majority); it does not automatically occur on reaching majority. Turner v. McCune, Mass.App., 357 N.E.2d 942.

In Roman law, the enfranchisement of a son by his father, which was anciently done by the formality of an imaginary sale. This was abolished by Justinian, who substituted the simpler proceeding of a manumission before a magistrate