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Under the law of the United Kingdom, high treason is the crime of disloyalty to the Crown. Offences constituting high treason include plotting the murder of the sovereign; committing adultery with the sovereign's consort, with the sovereign's eldest unmarried daughter, or with the wife of the heir to the throne; levying war against the sovereign and adhering to the sovereign's enemies, giving them aid or comfort; and attempting to undermine the lawfully established line of succession. Several other crimes have historically been categorised as high treason, including counterfeiting money and being a Catholic priest.〔Jesuits, etc. Act 1584〕 High treason was formerly distinguished from petty treason, a treason committed against a subject of the sovereign, the scope of which was limited by statute to the murder of a legal superior. Petty treason comprised the murder of a master by his servant, of a husband by his wife, or of a bishop. Petty treason ceased to be a distinct offence from murder in 1828, and consequently high treason is today often referred to simply as treason. Considered to be the most serious of offences, high treason was often met with extraordinary punishment, because it threatened the security of the state. Hanging, drawing and quartering was often employed. The last treason trial was that of William Joyce, who was executed in 1946. Since the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 became law, the maximum sentence for treason in the UK has been life imprisonment. ==Offences== High treason today consists of: * Treason Act 1351 (as amended): * *compassing the death of the sovereign, or of the sovereign's wife or eldest child and heir * *violating the sovereign's wife, or the sovereign's eldest unmarried daughter, or the sovereign's eldest son's wife (only if the eldest son is also heir to the throne) * *levying war against the sovereign in the realm * *adhering to the sovereign's enemies, giving them aid and comfort, in the realm or elsewhere * *killing the King's Chancellor, Treasurer (an office long in commission) or Justices * Treason Act 1702 and Treason Act (Ireland) 1703: * *attempting to hinder the succession to the throne under the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Act of Settlement 1701 * Treason Act 1708: * *killing the Lords of Session or Lords of Justiciary in Scotland * *(in Scottish law only) counterfeiting the Great Seal of Scotland ''See the English History section below for detail about the offences created by the 1351 Act.'' In addition to the crime of treason, the Treason Felony Act 1848 (still in force today) created a new offence known as ''treason felony'', with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment instead of death (but today, due to the abolition of the death penalty, the maximum penalty both for high treason and treason felony would be the same—life imprisonment). Under the traditional categorisation of offences into treason, felonies, and misdemeanours, treason felony was merely another form of felony. Several categories of treason which had been introduced by the Sedition Act 1661 were reduced to felonies. 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 treason are still offences under the common law. According to the law in force, it is treason felony to "compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend": * to deprive the sovereign of the Crown, * to levy war against the sovereign "in order by force or constraint to compel her to change her measures or counsels, or in order to put any force or constraint upon or in order to intimidate or overawe both Houses or either House of Parliament", or * to "move or stir" any foreigner to invade the United Kingdom or any other country belonging to the sovereign. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「High treason in the United Kingdom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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