Treason - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: treason Page: 3Piracy
Piracy [fr. pirata, Lat.], the commission of those acts of robbery and violence upon the sea, which if committed upon land wold amount to felony. Pirates hold no commission or delegated authority from any sovereign or State, empowering them to attack others. They can, therefore, be only regarded in the light of robbers. They are, as Cicero has truly stated, the common enemies of all (communes hostes omnium); and the law of nations gives to every one the right to pursue and exterminate them without any previous declaration of war (see Piracy Jure Gentium, 1934, AC 586, where a frustrated attempt was held to be piracy by that law); but it is not allowed to kill them without trial, except in battle. Those who surrender or are taken prisoners must be brought before the proper magistrates, and dealt with according to law. By the ancient Common Law of England, piracy, if committed by a subject, was held to be a species of treason, being contrary to his natural allegiance; if by an alien, to ...
High Steward, Court of the Lord
High Steward, Court of the Lord, a tribunal instituted for the trial of peers or peeresses indicted for treason or felony, or for misprision of either, but not for any other offence. The office of Lord High Steward is very ancient, and was formerly hereditary, or held for life, or dum bene se gesserit; but it has been for many centuries granted pro hac vice only, and always to a lord of Parliament. When, therefore, such an indictment is found by a grand jury of freeholders in the King's Bench, or at the assizes before a judge of oyer and terminer, it is removed by a writ of certiorari into the Court of the Lord High Steward, which alone has power to determine it.The sovereign, in case a peer be indicted for treason, felony, or misprision, appoints a Lord High Ste-ward pro vice, by commission under the Great Seal, which, reciting the indictment so found, gives him power to receive and try it secundum legem et consuetudinem Angli'. When the indictment is regularly removed by certiorari, ...
misprision
misprision [Anglo-French, error, wrongdoing, from Old French, from mesprendre to make a mistake, from mes- wrongly + prendre to take, from Latin prehendere to seize] 1 : neglectful or wrongful performance of an official duty 2 : a clerical error in a legal proceeding that can be corrected in a summary proceeding 3 : the concealment of a treason or felony and failure to report it to the prosecuting authorities by a person who has not committed it [ of felony] [ of treason] ...
Felony
Felony [fr. felonie, Fr.; felonia, Lat.; some deduce it fr. Gk., a deceiver, and fallo, Lat., to deceive; Spelman derives it fr. the Teutonic or German fee, a fieu or fiet, and lon, price or value; Coke says, 'Ex vi termini significat quodlibet capitale crimen felleo animo perpetratum,' Co. Litt. 391 a], originally the state of having forfeited lands and goods to the Crown upon conviction for certain offences, and then, by transition, any offence upon conviction for which such forfeiture followed, in addition to any other punishment prescribed by law, as distinguished from misdemeanour, upon conviction for which to forfeiture followed. All indictable offences are either felonies or misdemeanours, but a material part of the distinction is taken away by the Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 23), which abolishes forfeiture for felony, and provides for the administration of the estates of felons while undergoing sentence; see Carr v. Anderson, (1903) 2 Ch 279.The only remaining distin...
Crimen l's' majestatis
Crimen l's' majestatis, the crime of injured majesty; treason. See TREASON...
Coverture
Coverture, the condition of a woman during marriage, because she was then presumed to be under the influence of her husband, so as to be excused from punishment for crimes committed in his presence, except treason, murder, and manslaughter [see Reg. v. Manning, (1849) 2 C&K 903]; but the presumption maybe rebutted [Reg. v. Torpey, (1871) 12 Cox CC 45]. The Criminal Justice Act, 1925 (c. 86), s. 47, abolishes this presumption of coercion by the husband, but on a charge for any offence other than treason or murder, it shall be a good defence to prove that the offence was committed in the presene of, and under the coercion of the husband. See further HUSBAND AND WIFE....
Convict
Convict, a person found guilty of a crime or offence alleged against him, either by a verdict of a jury or other legal decision. The (English) Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 23), for abolishing forfeitures for treason and felony enables the Crown to appoint administrators of the Property of any convict sentenced to death or penal servitude for any treason or felony. The administrator has an absolute discretionary power of dealing with the convict' property, Carr v. Anderson, (1903) 2 Ch 279....
Civil death
Civil death. A man is said to be civilly dead (civiliter mortuus) when he has been attainted of treason or felony, and, in former times, when he adjured the realm or went into a monastery. The (English) Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 23), provides that after the passing of that Act no confession, verdict, inquest, conviction, or judgment of or for any treason or felony, or felo de se, shall cause any attainder or corruption of blood, or any forfeiture or escheat.At common law, the loss of rights. Such as the rights to vote, make contracts, inherit, hold public office and sue, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.Civil death, where a property-owner has not been heard of for more than seven years and is therefore treated as having died a civil death, Sheo Nand v. Deputy Director of Consolidation, Allahabad, (2000) 3 SCC 103....
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, inflicted in pursuance of the (English) Capital Punishment Amendment Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 24) (before which executions were public), within the prison in which the offender is confined at the time of execution, in the compulsory presence of the sheriff, gaoler, chaplain, and surgeon, and such other officers of the prison as the sheriff requires, and also in the discretionary presence of any justice of the peace for the county, etc., and of such 'relatives of the prisoner, or other persons as it seems to the sheriff or visiting justices proper to admit within the prison.'-Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Criminal Law,' where see the Rules of 1888 under the Act. See SENTENCE OF DEATH.The mode in the United Kingdom is hanging, but for high treason the Crown may alter it to beheading: see the (English) Treason Act, 1814 (54 Geo. 3, c. 146), as amended by s. 31 of the Forfeiture Act, 1870....
Gavelkind
Gavelkind. A mode or rule of descent by custom abolished by the Administration of Estates Act, 1925, s. 45(1)(a), in the case of all deaths after 1925 except in regard to entailed estates, and descent from a person of unsound mind, as provided by s. 51 (ibid.), and see (English) L.P. Act, 1922, 12th Sched. (1)(d), and Re Price, 1928 Ch 579. The word is derived from the Saxon word 'gafol,' or, as it is otherwise written, 'gavel,' which signifies 'rent' or a 'customary performance of husbandry works'; accordingly the land which yielded this kind of service, in contradistinction to knight-service land, was called 'GAVELKIND' that is 'land of the kind that yields rent.' Lambarde (Perambulations of Kent, Edn. 1656, p. 585) first advanced and promulgated this supposition, which does not seem to be sufficiently comprehensive since 'gavelkind' does not necessarily denote land subject to rent, in opposition to the opinion of Lord Coke, who traced the word to 'gave all kinde' 'for the custom giv...
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