year and a day rule的中文意思为“一年零一天规则”，在普通法上，因死亡提起的诉讼必须在死者死后一年零一天内提出；此外，除非被害人在被告人的不法行为发生之日起一年零一天内死去，被害人的死亡不能归责于被告人。这是因为当时缺乏必要的医疗手段，在经历了如此长的时间后，无法精确地确定死亡的原因，也无法查明是否是其他外来原因引起被害人死亡。但在医学发展的今天，一年零一天规则似乎已经过时而应当舍弃。在美国，有些司法区已通过立法或司法判例舍弃，但大多数司法区尚保留。为了更好的理解该词，以下是该词的英文释义:The year and a day rule has been a common length of time for establishing differences in legal status.The phrase “year and a day rule” is associated with the former common law standard that death could not be legally attributed to acts or omissions that occurred more than a year and a day before the death.In English common law, it was held that a death was conclusively presumed not to be murder (or any other homicide) if it occurred more than a year and one day since the act (or omission) that was alleged to have been its cause. The rule also applied to the offence of assisting with a suicide.

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Certain problems with this rule arise from the advance of medicine. Life support technology can extend the interval between the murderous act and the subsequent death. Application of the year and a day rule prevented murder prosecutions, not because of the merits of the case, but because of the successful intervention of doctors in prolonging life. Additionally, advances in forensic medicine may assist the court to determine that an act was a cause of death even though it was carried out fairly far in the past.

这条规则的某些问题来自于医学的进步。生命支持技术可以延长谋杀行为和随后死亡之间的间隔。一年零一天规则的应用阻止了谋杀案的起诉，不是因为案件的是非曲直，而是因为医生延长生命成功地干预了起诉。此外，法医学的进步可能有助于法院确定某一行为是死亡的诱因，即使该行为在过去相当长的一段时间内已经实施。