Treason

In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation. A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor. Oran's Dictionary of the Law (1983) defines treason as: "......citizen's actions to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the ." It is also generally considered treason to attempt or conspire to overthrow the government.

United Kingdom

The British law of treason is entirely statutory and has been so since the Treason Act 1351 (25 Edw. 3 St. 5) c. 2, which is unusual in English Criminal Law. The Act is written in Norman French, but is more commonly cited in its English translation.

Related Topics:
British - Statutory - Treason Act 1351 - Criminal Law - Norman French

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The Treason Act 1351 has since been amended several times, and currently provides for four categories of treasonable offences, namely:

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• "when a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of their eldest son and heir";
• "if a man do violate the King?s companion, or the King?s eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the King?s eldest son and heir";
• "if a man do levy war against our lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King?s enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be probably attainted of open deed by the people of their condition"; and
• "if a man slea the chancellor, treasurer, or the King?s justices of the one bench or the other, justices in eyre, or justices of assise, and all other justices assigned to hear and determine, being in their places, doing their offices".

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In addition to the crime of treason, the Treason Felony Act 1848 created various offences known as treason felony. Under the traditional categorisation of offences into treason, felonies and misdemeanours, treason felony was merely another form of felony. While the common law offences of misprision and compounding were abolished in respect of felonies (including treason felony) by the Criminal Law Act 1967, which abolished the distinction between misdemeanour and felony, misprision of treason and compounding of treason are still offences under the common law.

Related Topics:
Treason Felony Act 1848 - Treason felony - Felonies - Misdemeanour - Misprision - Compounding - Criminal Law Act 1967 - Misprision of treason

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During the Second World War, the crime of treachery, with a mandatory death penalty, was created under the Treachery Act 1940 http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/treachery.htm. Anyone who spied for Germany, committed sabotage or otherwise aided the enemy was liable to be prosecuted for treachery, which was easier to prove than high treason because allegiance to the Crown did not have to be proven. 17 people were hanged for treachery during the war. The Treachery Act 1940 was repealed in England and Wales by the Criminal Law Act 1967.

Related Topics:
Second World War - Treachery

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By virtue of the Treason Act 1708, the law of treason in Scotland is the same as the law in England, save that in Scotland counterfeiting the Great Seal of Scotland (the Forgery Act 1830 does not apply to Scotland) and the slaying of the Lords of Session and Lords of Justiciary are adjudged treason.

Related Topics:
Scotland - Lords of Session

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The penalty for treason was changed to a maximum of imprisonment for life in 1998 under the Crime And Disorder Act. Before 1998 the mandatory penalty was death, subject to the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. Lord Haw Haw was the last person to be prosecuted and hanged for treason.

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As to who can commit treason, it depends on the ancient notion of allegiance. As such, British citizens (and British subjects who were Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies) wherever they may be owe allegiance to The Queen as do aliens present in the United Kingdom at the time of the treasonable act (except diplomats and foreign invading forces), those who hold a British passport however obtained, and by aliens who - having lived in Britain and gone abroad again - have left behind family and belongings.

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History

The Treason Act 1351 formerly distinguished two varieties of treason: high treason and petty treason. High treason was punishable by death; if executed, the traitor's property would escheat to the Crown. Individuals convicted of petty treason surrendered property to their immediate Lord. The murder of one's lawful superior, i.e. a servant killing his master, a wife her husband or anyone his or her prelate, amounted to petty treason. High treason covered acts that constituted a serious threat to the stability or continuity of the state.

Related Topics:
High treason - Petty treason - Escheat - Crown - Lord - Servant - Master - Wife - Husband - Prelate - State

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The fifth category of treasonable offences, namely counterfeiting, was abolished by the Forgery Act 1830. The 1351 Act originally also provided that if new treasonable acts not listed in the Act arose they could be referred to the King and Parliament, who would determine whether the act constituted treason or merely some other felony.

Related Topics:
1830 - Parliament - Felony

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The punishment for treason was in former times typically an extended and especially cruel death. This remained unreformed until the 19th century. Previously, any method (in theory) could be legally used to carry out the death penalty —most popular in the middle-ages were hanging, drawing and quartering. The requirement that the body be hung, drawn and quartered was repealed by the Criminal Justice Act 1947 (1947 c.80).

Related Topics:
19th century - Hanging - Quartering

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A notable treason trial occurred at the Old Bailey in 1916 when Sir Roger Casement was accused of siding with the King George V's enemies for his role in the Easter Uprising in Ireland and encouraging Irish soldiers in the British Army to desert and fight for Germany during World War I. Casement tried to argue that as an Irishman, he was a foreigner and could not be tried in an English Court. This fell through as he had been in the employment of the British Government almost all his adult life as a diplomat and had accepted a Knighthood from the King and a pension from the British Government on his retirement in 1911. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison on 3 August 1916 and is regarded as a martyr by the Irish Republican movement to this day. His case is often cited as a classic example of the political dimension to the crime of treason where one man's treason is another's fight for freedom.

Related Topics:
1916 - Sir Roger Casement - George V - Easter Uprising - Ireland - Germany - World War I - Knighthood - 1911 - Pentonville Prison - 3 August - Irish Republican

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The last execution for treason in the United Kingdom was held in 1946 The defendant was William Joyce (a.k.a. Lord Haw Haw) who stood accused of levying war against King George VI by travelling to Germany in the early months of World War II and taking up employment to broadcast pro-Nazi propaganda to British radio audiences for the duration of the war. He awarded a personal commendation by Hitler in 1944 for his contribution to the German war effort. On his capture at the end of the war, Parliament rushed through the Treason Act 1945 (1945 c.44) to facilitate a trial that would have same procedure as a trial for murder. Hitherto, a treason trial not involving regicide would have to have had an elaborate and drawn out medieval procedure. Although Joyce was born in the United States to Irish parents, he had moved to Britain in his teens and applied for a British passport in 1933 which was still valid when he defected to Germany and so technically owed allegiance to Britain when he did so. He appealed against conviction to the House of Lords on the grounds he had lied about his country of birth when he applied for the passport and so did not owe allegiance to any country at the beginning of the war. The appeal was not upheld. He was executed at Wandsworth Prison on 3 January 1946.

Related Topics:
1946 - William Joyce - Lord Haw Haw - George VI - World War II - Hitler - 1944 - Regicide - United States - Irish - 1933 - House of Lords - Wandsworth Prison - 3 January

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It is thought the strength of public feeling against Joyce as a perceived wartime traitor was the driving force behind his prosecution. The only evidence offered at his trial that he began broadcasting from Germany while he had a valid British passport was the testimony of a London police inspector who had questioned him before the war while he was an active member of the British Union of Fascists and claimed to have recognised his voice on a propaganda broadcast in the early weeks of the war. Theoretically, the burden of proof on the prosecution in any British trial is much higher.

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Later convictions for treason in the UK include Marcus Sarjeant, who fired blank shots at the Queen during the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1981 and was jailed for five years after he pleaded guilty to a charge under the Treason Act 1842; and Michael Bettaney, who was convicted of treason in 1984 after spying for the Russians and jailed for 23 years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4131696.stm

Related Topics:
Marcus Sarjeant - Blank - The Queen - Trooping the Colour - Treason Act 1842 - Michael Bettaney - Spy

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Along with piracy with violence and arson in Her Majesty's dockyards, treason remained one of the last offences in the United Kingdom that attracted a death penalty. The death penalty for treason was abolished in the United Kingdom by Section 36 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/98037--e.htm#36 (1998 c.37).

Related Topics:
Piracy - Offences in the United Kingdom - Death penalty - Crime and Disorder Act 1998

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On 8 August 2005 it was reported that the UK Government is considering bringing prosecutions for treason against a number of British Islamic clerics who have publicly spoken positively about acts of terrorism against civilians in Britain, or attacks on British soldiers abroad, including the 7 July London bombings and numerous attacks on troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4130454.stm

Related Topics:
8 August - 2005 - 7 July London bombings - Iraq - Afghanistan

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