Treason Act
Treason Act or Treasons Act or Statute of Treasons is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and in Ireland on the subject of treason and related offences.
Several Acts on the subject of treason may also have different short titles, such as the Sedition Act.
The Treason Acts may refer to all statutes with this short title or to all statutes on the subject of treason and related offences.
Main acts in force
United Kingdom
- The Treason Act 1351 first provided a statutory definition of treason, which is mostly still in force. The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 amended two of the treasons to reduce gender inequality.
- The Treason Act 1495 excludes acts done in support of a defeated claimant to the throne in a civil war from the scope of treason.
- The Treason Act 1537, in force in Northern Ireland, expands the definition of treason.
- The Treason Act 1695 establishes a time limit for prosecutions for treason of three years, except in the case of assassinating or attempting to assassinate the monarch. The Treason Act 1821 extends these provisions to Northern Ireland.
- The Treason Act 1702 further extends the definition of treason.
- The Treason Act 1708 abolished the Scots law of treason and substituted the English law, and also made it treason to kill certain Scottish judges or counterfeit the Great Seal of Scotland.
- The Treason Act 1814 specifies the penalty for treason; following abolition of the death penalty by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, this is life imprisonment.
- The Treason Act 1842 creates an offence short of treason of using weapons with intent to injure or alarm the monarch.
- The Treason Felony Act 1848 reduced certain treasons to the offence of 'treason felony'. Obiter dicta in a case related to treason felony suggests that the Human Rights Act 1998 has altered the proper interpretation of this offence.
- The Criminal Law Act 1967 specifies that the same trial procedure is to be used for treason as for murder. Before 1945, treason was subject to a different criminal procedure.
- Treason is an excepted matter in Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland Act 1998, a reserved matter in Scotland under the Scotland Act 1998, and a listed category of offence under the Government of Wales Act 2006. The respective devolved legislatures have no power to legislate on these subjects.
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