Treason - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: treasonTreason
Treason [fr. trahir, Fr., to betray; proditio, Lat.], or leze-majesty, an offence against the duty of allegiance, and the highest known crime, for it aims at the very destruction of the commonwealth itself. Five species of treason are declared by the Treason Act, 1351, or 'Statute of Treasons' (25 Edw. 3, st. 5, c. 2), as follows:-(1) When a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the king (a queen regnant is within these words), of our lady his queen or of their eldest son and heir.(2) If a man do violate the king's companion (i.e., his wife), or the king's eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the king's eldest son and heir.(3) If a man do levy war against our lord the king in his realm. (After a battle has taken place, it is termed bellum percussum; before it, bellum levatum.)(4) If a man be adherent to the king's enemies in his realm, giving to them aid or comfort in the realm or elsewhere.(5) If a man slay the chancellor, treasurer, or the king's justices assigned to...
Treason felony
Treason felony, means an act that shows an intention of committing treason, unaccompanied by any further act to carry out that intention, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1507.Treason felony. Treason-felony is, like treason, a purely statutory offence. by the Treason-Felony Act, 1848, s. 3, as read with s. 30 of the Interpretation Act, 1889, 'If any person shall, within the United Kingdom or without, compass to depose the King, or to levy war against him, within any part of the United Kingdom, in order to compel him to change his counsels, or in order to intimidate or overawe Parliament, or to stir any foreigner with force to invade the United Kingdom, or any other His Majesty's dominions, and such compassings shall express by writing, or by open or advised speaking, or by any overt act, he shall be guilty of felony.'...
High treason
High treason. Since petit treason was abolished by 9 Geo. 4, c. 31, s. 2, the correlative term high is not now usually retained when speaking of this highest civil crime. It is merely denominated treason. See TREASON....
Constructive treason
Constructive treason, an attempt to establish treason by circumstantiality and not by the simple genuine letter of the law, and therefore highly dangerous to public freedom, Erskine's Defence of Lord George Gordon; 3 Hall, Const. Hit. c. xv. See TREASON....
Petit treason
Petit treason, treason of a lesser kind, as if a servant killed his master, a wife her husband, a secular or religious man his prelate. But by 9 Geo. 4, c. 31, s. 2, every offence which, before the passing of the Act, would have amounted to petit treason, is deemed murder only....
treason
treason [Anglo-French treison crime of violence against a person to whom allegiance is owed, literally, betrayal, from Old French traïson, from traïr to betray, from Latin tradere to hand over, surrender] : the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of one's country or of assisting its enemies in war ;specif : the act of levying war against the United States or adhering to or giving aid and comfort to its enemies by one who owes it allegiance trea·son·ous [-əs] adj ...
Treasonable misdemeanor
Treasonable misdemeanor, means an act that is likely to endanger or alarm the monarch, or disturb the public peace in the presence of the monarch, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1506....
Misprision
Misprision [fr. mepris, Fr.], neglect, negligence, or oversight.All such high offences as are under the degree of capital, but nearly bordering thereon, are misprisions; and it is said that a misprision is contained in every treason and felony whatsoever, and that, if the Crown so please, the offender may be proceeded against for the misprision only. And upon the same principle, while the court of Star Chamber existed, it was held that the sovereign might remit a prosecution for treason, and cause the delinquent to be censured in that Court, merely for a high misdemeanour; as in the case of Roger, Earl of Rutland, in 43 Eliz., concerned in Essex's rebellion. Every great misdemeanour, according to Coke, which has no certain term appointed by the law, is sometimes called a misprision.Misprisions are divided in the text-books into two kinds:-(1) Negative, the concealment of what ought to be revealed; such is misprision of treason, the bare knowledge and concealment of treason without any ...
Peremptory Challenge
Peremptory Challenge, an arbitrary species of challenge to a certain number of jurors without showing any cause.This privilege is granted to a prisoner in cases of treason and felony, but not misdemeanour, and is denied to the Crown. In treason a prisoner can challenge without cause thirty-five jurors, unless the treason affects the King's person, when the number is limited to twenty, as in felony [(English) Treason Acts, 1695, 1800 and 1842, and the (English) Juries Act, 1825]. See also the (English) Criminal Law Act, 1827, s. 3....
Sedition
Sedition, an offence against the Crown and govern-ment, not capital, and not amounting to treason. It cannot be tried at Quarter Sessions. See the (English) Unlawful Assemblies Act, 1799 (39 Geo. 3, c. 79); the (English) Seditious Meetings Act, 1817 (57 Geo. 3, c. 19), jointly called the '(English) Corresponding Societies Acts,' and much resembl-ing one another. Registered friendly societies are exempted by s. 32 of the (English) Friendly Societies Acts, 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c. 25), if transact-ing no business not relating to the objects of the societies; and the (English) Criminal Libel Act, 1819 (60 Geo. 3 & 1 Geo. 4, c. 8). By the (English) Act of 1817, s. 23, which has no parallel in the Act of 1799, political meetings of more than fifty persons within one mile of Westminster Hall, except for parliamentary election purposes, are declared unlawful on any day on which Parliament is sitting. By s. 25 of the Act of 1817, and s. 2 of the Act of 1799, every society or club, the members of...
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