Sedition Act 1661
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| Long title | An Act for Safety and Preservation of His Majesties Person and Government against Treasonable and Seditious practices and attempts. |
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| Citation | 13 Car 2 St 1 c 1 |
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Status: Repealed
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The Sedition Act 1661 (13 Car 2 St 1 c 1) was an Act of the Parliament of England, although it was extended to Scotland in 1708. Passed shortly after the Restoration of Charles II, it is no longer in force, but some of its provisions continue to survive today in the Treason Act 1695 and the Treason Felony Act 1848. One clause which was included in the Treason Act 1695 was later adapted for the United States Constitution.
The most important feature of the Act was that it reintroduced a significant new rule of evidence in high treason trials, namely that nobody could be convicted of treason except by the evidence of "two lawful and credible witnesses upon oath... brought in person before him or them face to face," or if he confessed "willingly without violence." (This rule had previously been enacted in section 22 of the Treason Act 1547, and again in section XI of the Treason Act 1554, which however differed from the other versions by only requiring the witnesses "if [they were] living and within the realm".) This clause of the 1661 Act, section 5, was replaced by the Treason Act 1695, which added that the two witnesses had to have witnessed the same offence (although not necessarily the same "overt act" of the offence). The rule was inherited by the United States and was incorporated into the US Constitution in 1787, which added that both witnesses had to have witnessed the same overt act. Section 5 of the 1661 Act was cited by US Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia in his judgement in Crawford v. Washington, a case about the "Confrontation Clause" of the Sixth Amendment.
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