The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Spoliation \Spo`li*a"tion\ (sp[=o]"l[i^]*[=a]"sh[u^]n), n. [L.
   spoliatio: cf. F. spoliation. See Spoil, v. t.]
   1. The act of plundering; robbery; deprivation; despoliation.
      [1913 Webster]

            Legal spoliation, which will impoverish one part of
            the community in order to corrupt the remainder.
                                                  --Sir G. C.
                                                  Lewis.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Robbery or plunder in war; especially, the authorized act
      or practice of plundering neutrals at sea.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Eccl. Law)
      (a) The act of an incumbent in taking the fruits of his
          benefice without right, but under a pretended title.
          --Blackstone.
      (b) A process for possession of a church in a spiritual
          court.
          [1913 Webster]

   4. (Law) Injury done to a document.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

spoliation
    n 1: (law) the intentional destruction of a document or an
         alteration of it that destroys its value as evidence
    2: the act of stripping and taking by force [syn: spoil,
       spoliation, spoilation, despoilation, despoilment,
       despoliation]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

85 Moby Thesaurus words for "spoliation":
   banditry, bereavement, bloodbath, blue ruin, breakup, brigandage,
   brigandism, carnage, consumption, cost, damage, damnation,
   dead loss, debit, decimation, denial, denudation, depredation,
   deprivation, desolation, despoiling, despoilment, despoliation,
   destruction, detriment, devastation, direption, disintegration,
   disorganization, dispossession, disruption, dissolution,
   divestment, expense, foraging, foray, forfeit, forfeiture,
   freebooting, havoc, hecatomb, holocaust, injury, looting, loser,
   losing, losing streak, loss, marauding, perdition, pillage,
   pillaging, plunder, plundering, privation, raid, raiding,
   ransacking, rape, rapine, ravage, ravagement, ravaging, ravishment,
   razzia, reiving, rifling, robbery, ruin, ruination, sack, sacking,
   sacrifice, shambles, slaughter, spoiling, stripping, taking away,
   total loss, undoing, vandalism, waste, wrack, wrack and ruin,
   wreck



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SPOLIATION, Eng. eccl. law. The name of a suit sued out in the spiritual
court to recover for the fruits of the church, or for the church itself. F.
N. B. 85.
     2. It is also a waste of church property by an ecclesiastical person. 3
Bl. Com. 90.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SPOLIATION, torts. Destruction of a thing by the act of a stranger; as, the
erasure or alteration of a writing by the act of a stranger, is called
spoliation. This has not the effect to destroy its character or legal
effect. 1 Greenl. Ev. Sec. 566. 2. By spoliation is also understood the
total destruction of a thing; as, the spoliation of papers, by the captured
party, is generally regarded as proof of. guilt, but in America it is open
to explanation, except in certain cases where there is a vehement
presumption of bad faith. 2 Wheat. 227, 241; 1 Dods. Adm. 480, 486. See
Alteration.