amercement

It differs from a fine,in that the latter is, or was originally, a fixed and certain sum prescribed by statue for an offense; but an amercement is arbitrary.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary by Noah Webster

The penalty of the breach of the Laws or Customes of this Land is at the pleasure of the Judg, either amercement, or imprisonment, or both.

From An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies Together with an Account of the Detaining in Captivity the Author and Divers other Englishmen Now Living There, and of the Author's Miraculous Escape by Robert Knox

And in many other statutes passed after Magna Carta, the terms fine and amercement seem to be used indifferently, in prescribing the punishment for offences.

From An Essay on the Trial by Jury by Lysander Spooner

Consequently, that the disrespect of such orders might make the commander or his troops personally liable to amercement; but the government is not justly liable.

From Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

Refusing to do so, he was thereupon summoned to come into the Police Court on the glorious Fourth to show cause why he ought not to pay the amercement.

From William Lloyd Garrison The Abolitionist by Archibald Henry Grimké