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The Treason Felony Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 12) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Parts of the Act are still in force. It is a law which protects the Queen and the Crown. The offences in the Act were originally high treason under the Sedition Act 1661 (later the Treason Act 1795), and consequently the penalty was death. However it was found that juries were often reluctant to convict people of capital crimes, and it was thought that the conviction rate might increase if the sentence was reduced to exile to the penal colonies in Australia (the penalty is now life imprisonment). Consequently, in 1848 three categories of treason (all derived from the 1795 Act) were reduced to felonies. (This occurred during a period when the death penalty in the United Kingdom was being abolished for a great many offences.) The Act does not prevent prosecutors from charging somebody with treason instead of treason felony if the same conduct amounts to both offences.〔Section 6.〕 It is treason felony to "compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend": * to deprive the Queen of her crown, * to levy war against the Queen, or * to "move or stir" any foreigner to invade the United Kingdom or any other country belonging to the Queen. In 2001, ''The Guardian'' newspaper mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to the Act in the High Court, alleging that the act "...makes it a criminal offence, punishable by life imprisonment, to advocate abolition of the monarchy in print, even by peaceful means..."〔(Judgments - Regina v Her Majesty's Attorney General (Appellant) ex parte Rusbridger and another (Respondents) ). House of Lords. June 26, 2003〕 They sought a declaration that the Human Rights Act 1998 had altered its meaning so that only violent conduct was criminal. The court held that this was a hypothetical question that did not deserve an answer, since ''The Guardian'' was not being prosecuted. The case eventually went to the House of Lords on appeal in 2003. In a unanimous judgement the House agreed that the litigation was unnecessary, but most of the judges nevertheless agreed with (and none disagreed with) Lord Steyn's view that "the part of section 3 of the 1848 Act which appears to criminalise the advocacy of republicanism is a relic of a bygone age and does not fit into the fabric of our modern legal system. The idea that section 3 could survive scrutiny under the Human Rights Act is unreal."〔''R. (Rusbridger) v. Attorney General'' () UKHL 38; () AC 357; () 3 All ER 784〕 On 13 December 2013, it was reported that Section 3 of the Act, which had made it an offence punishable by life imprisonment to print, or otherwise "by any overt act or deed" to support the abolition of the monarchy or to "imagine, invent, devise, or intend to deprive or depose" the monarch, had been repealed earlier in the year, without publicity.〔("Monarchy law repealed 165 years on", MSN News, 13 December 2013 ). Retrieved 13 December 2013〕 However, the Government later stated that the announcement that it had been repealed was wrong, and that it was still on the statute book.〔( Owen Bowcott, "Calling for abolition of monarchy is still illegal, UK justice ministry admits", ''The Guardian'', 13 December 2013 ). Retrieved 13 December 2013〕 The last reported case under the Act in the United Kingdom was in 1883, although the Act was used in Australia in 1916 to prosecute the "Sydney Twelve". ==Punishment and procedure== Treason felony is an indictable-only offence.〔The Treason Felony Act 1848, section 3; the Criminal Law Act 1967, section 1〕 It is punishable with imprisonment for life or any shorter term.〔The Treason Felony Act 1848, section 3; the Penal Servitude Act 1857, section 2; the Criminal Justice Act 1948, section 1(1); the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1953, section 1(1); the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975, section 221(1)〕 In Northern Ireland, a person charged with treason felony may not be admitted to bail except by order of the High Court or of the Secretary of State.〔The Magistrates' Courts Order (Northern Ireland) 1981 (No.1675 (N.I.26)), article 38〕 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「Treason Felony Act 1848」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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