Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776

Last updated

Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An act to empower his Majesty to secure and detain persons charged with, or suspected of, the crime of high treason, committed in any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America, or on the high seas, or the crime of piracy.
Citation 17 Geo. 3. c. 9
Territorial extent 
Dates
Royal assent 3 March 1776
Expired1 January 1778
Repealed21 August 1871
Other legislation
Amended by
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1778
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1779
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1780
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1781
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1782
Repealed by
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776 (17 Geo. 3. c. 9) also known as the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1777 or the Treason Act 1777 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed during the American Revolution. It required that anyone who was charged with or suspected of high treason or piracy in America or on the high seas be held in custody without bail or trial until 1 January 1778. Bail could only be granted by an order of the Privy Council, signed by six members of the council. [1]

Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1778
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An Act for continuing an Act made in the last Session of Parliament, intituled, "An Act to empower His Majesty to secure and detain Persons charged with or suspected of the Crime of High Treason, committed in any of His Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy."
Citation 18 Geo. 3. c. 1
Dates
Royal assent 10 December 1777
Expired1 January 1779
Repealed21 August 1871
Other legislation
Amends
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776
Repealed by
Status: Repealed
Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1779
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An Act for further continuing an Act, made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled, "An Act to empower His Majesty to secure and detain Persons charged with, or suspected of, the Crime of High Treason, committed in any of His Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy."
Citation 19 Geo. 3. c. 1
Dates
Royal assent 16 December 1778
Expired1 January 1780
Repealed21 August 1871
Other legislation
Amends
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776
Repealed by
Status: Repealed
Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1780
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An Act for further continuing an Act made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled, "An Act to empower His Majesty to secure and detain Persons charged with, or suspected of, the Crime of High Treason, committed in any of His Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy."
Citation 20 Geo. 3. c. 5
Dates
Royal assent 15 December 1779
Expired1 January 1781
Repealed21 August 1871
Other legislation
Amends
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776
Repealed by
Status: Repealed
Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1781
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An Act for further continuing an Act made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled, "An Act to empower His Majesty to secure and detain Persons charged with, or suspected of, the Crime of High Treason, committed in any of His Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy."
Citation 21 Geo. 3. c. 2
Dates
Royal assent 27 November 1780
Expired1 January 1782
Repealed21 August 1871
Other legislation
Amends
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776
Repealed by
Status: Repealed
Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1782
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of Great Britain (1714-1801).svg
Long title An Act for further continuing an Act made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, intituled, "An Act to empower His Majesty to secure and detain Persons charged with, or suspected of the Crime of High Treason, committed in any of His Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy."
Citation 22 Geo. 3. c. 1
Dates
Royal assent 20 December 1781
Expired1 January 1783
Repealed21 August 1871
Other legislation
Amends
  • Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1776
Repealed by
Status: Repealed

The Act was due to expire on 1 January 1778, but this was extended annually to 1 January of each successive year until 1 January 1783, when it was finally allowed to expire. [2] [3]

Related Research Articles

Habeas corpus is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, to bring the prisoner to court, to determine whether the detention is lawful.

<i>Ex parte Merryman</i> United States legal case

Ex parte Merryman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (No. 9487), was a controversial U.S. federal court case that arose out of the American Civil War. It was a test of the authority of the President to suspend "the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" under the Constitution's Suspension Clause, when Congress was in recess and therefore unavailable to do so itself. More generally, the case raised questions about the ability of the executive branch to decline to enforce judicial decisions when the executive believes them to be erroneous and harmful to its own legal powers.

The Statutes at Large is the name given to published collections or series of legislative Acts in a number of jurisdictions.

The Mutiny Acts were an almost 200-year series of annual Acts passed by the Parliament of England, the Parliament of Great Britain, and the Parliament of the United Kingdom for governing, regulating, provisioning, and funding the English and later British Army.

Treason Act or Treasons Act or Statute of Treasons is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and in the Republic of Ireland on the subject of treason and related offences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piracy Act 1717</span> Act of the Parliament of Great Britain

The Piracy Act 1717, sometimes called the Transportation Act 1717, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that established a regulated, bonded system to transport criminals to colonies in North America for indentured service, as a punishment for those convicted or attainted in Great Britain, excluding Scotland. The Act established a seven-year transportation sentence as a punishment for people convicted of lesser felonies, and a fourteen-year sentence for more serious crimes, in lieu of capital punishment. Completion of the sentence had the effect of a pardon; the punishment for returning before completion was death. It is commonly accepted that 30,000 convicts may have been transported to the British American colonies, with some estimates going as high as 50,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1745</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1745 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of Great Britain passed on 18 October 1745, and formally repealed in 1867. It made various provisions for arresting and imprisoning those suspected of treason during the Second Jacobite Rising. The Act was continued in force by a second Act of the same title and by a third act the next year before expiring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treason Act 1817</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Treason Act 1817 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It made it high treason to assassinate the Prince Regent. It also made permanent the Treason Act 1795, which had been due to expire on the death of George III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion Act 1580</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Religion Act 1580 or Recusancy Act 1680 was an Act of the Parliament of England during the English Reformation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1794</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1794 was an Act passed by the British Parliament. The Act's long title was An act to empower his Majesty to secure and detain such persons as his Majesty shall suspect are conspiring against his person and government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1798</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1798 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1799</span> Act of Parliament of Great Britain

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1799 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1817</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1817 was an Act passed by the British Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jurors (Scotland) Act 1745</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Jurors (Scotland) Act 1745 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, passed during the Jacobite Rising of 1745. Its long title was "An Act for the more easy and speedy Trial of such Persons as have levied, or shall levy War against His Majesty; and for the better ascertaining the Qualifications of Jurors in Trials for High Treason or Misprision of Treason, in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland." It was one of the Juries (Scotland) Acts 1745 to 1869.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habeas Corpus Suspension Act (1863)</span> American Law during the Civil War

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, 12 Stat. 755 (1863), entitled An Act relating to Habeas Corpus, and regulating Judicial Proceedings in Certain Cases, was an Act of Congress that authorized the president of the United States to suspend the right of habeas corpus in response to the American Civil War and provided for the release of political prisoners. It began in the House of Representatives as an indemnity bill, introduced on December 5, 1862, releasing the president and his subordinates from any liability for having suspended habeas corpus without congressional approval. The Senate amended the House's bill, and the compromise reported out of the conference committee altered it to qualify the indemnity and to suspend habeas corpus on Congress's own authority. Abraham Lincoln signed the bill into law on March 3, 1863, and suspended habeas corpus under the authority it granted him six months later. The suspension was partially lifted with the issuance of Proclamation 148 by Andrew Johnson, and the Act became inoperative with the end of the Civil War. The exceptions to Johnson's Proclamation 148 were the States of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, the District of Columbia, and the Territories of New Mexico and Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Correspondence with Enemies Act 1793</span> British legislation

The Correspondence with Enemies Act 1793 was an Act of the British Parliament passed at the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars. France had declared war on Great Britain on 1 February; the Act was passed on 7 May to prohibit trade between the countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Habeas Corpus Suspension Acts of 1688</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Habeas Corpus Suspension Acts of 1688 were three Acts of the Parliament of England which temporarily suspended the right of habeas corpus in England until 17 April, 25 May and 23 October 1689 respectively. They were passed in the wake of the Glorious Revolution, in which King James II had recently been deposed.

References

  1. Statutes at Large, vol. VIII, London: Eyre, Straham, Woodfall.
  2. 18 Geo. 3. c. 1 (1778), 19 Geo. 3. c. 1 (1779), 20 Geo. 3. c. 5 (1780), 21 Geo. 3. c. 2 (1781), 22 Geo. 3. c. 1 (1782).
  3. Statutes at Large, vol. X (Index), London: Eyre, Straham, Woodfall (1786), "Plantations" para. 115.

See also