Treason Act 1945
|
|
| Long title | An Act to assimilate the procedure in all cases of treason and misprision of treason to the procedure in cases of murder. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 8 & 9 Geo.6 c.44 |
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 15 June 1945 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | |
|
Status: Repealed
|
|
The Treason Act 1945 (8 & 9 Geo.6 c.44) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
It was introduced into the House of Lords as a purely procedural statute, whose sole purpose was to abolish the old and highly technical procedure in cases of treason, and assimilate it to the procedure on trials for murder:
It also abolished the rule that treason trials in Scotland had to be conducted according to the rules of English criminal law.
Section 1 of the Act applied the Treason Act 1800 to all cases of treason and misprision of treason, subject to five separate repeals of words, and to a saving clause in section 2(2):
Section 2(1) of the Act effected consequential repeals.
The application of the Treason Act 1800 was subject to a saving clause in section 2(2).
Section 3(1) of the Act provided that it may be cited as the Treason Act, 1945.
Section 3(2) of the Act extended the Treason Act 1800, as applied by the Act, to Northern Ireland.
Section 3(3) of the Act provided that, for the purposes of section 6 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Act was to be deemed to be an Act passed before the appointed day.
The procedure established by this Act was used in four trials: those of William Joyce, John Amery, Thomas Haller Cooper and Walter Purdy.J. W. Hall said that if the statutory requirement for corroboration had not been repealed by this Act, William Joyce could not have been convicted on the basis of the evidence offered at his trial. One witness, Detective Inspector Hunt, connected him with the broadcasts during the period before the expiration of the passport (though other witnesses might have come forward).
The schedule to this Act was repealed on 18 December 1953 by section 1 of, and the first schedule to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1953, except in so far as it related to the Treason Act 1695 and the Treason Act 1708. Those two entries could not be repealed because they were referred to in section 2(2). The other entries were spent because their sole effect was to repeal other enactments.
...
Wikipedia