Lèse majesté - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lese-majesty ˌ is the crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

of violating majesty

Majesty

Majesty is an English word derived ultimately from the Latin maiestas, meaning "greatness".- Origin :Originally, during the Roman republic, the word maiestas was the legal term for the supreme status and dignity of the state, to be respected above everything else...

, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign

Monarch

A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

or against a state.

This behavior was first classified as a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

in Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

. In the Dominate

Dominate

The Dominate was the "despotic" latter phase of government in the ancient Roman Empire from the conclusion of the Third Century Crisis of 235–284 until the formal date of the collapse of the Western Empire in AD 476. It followed the period known as the Principate...

, or Late Empire period the Emperor

Roman Emperor

The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

s scrapped the Republican trappings of their predecessors and began to identify the state with their person. Though legally the princeps civitatis (his official title, roughly 'first citizen') could never become a sovereign, as the republic was never officially abolished, emperors were deified as divus

Apotheosis

Apotheosis is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature...

, first posthumously but by the Dominate period while reigning. Deified Emperors thus enjoyed the legal protection provided for the divinities of the state cult

Imperial cult (Ancient Rome)

The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State...

; by the time it was exchanged for Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, the monarchical tradition in all but name was well established.

Narrower conceptions of offences against Majesty as offences against the crown predominated in the European kingdoms that emerged in the early medieval period. In feudal

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

Europe, various real crimes were classified as lese-majesty even though not intentionally directed against the crown, such as counterfeiting because coins bear the monarch's effigy and/or coat of arms.

However, since the disappearance of absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy

Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...

, this is viewed as less of a crime, although similar, more malicious acts could be considered treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

. By analogy, as modern times saw republics emerging as great powers, a similar crime may be constituted, though not under this name, by any offence against the highest representatives of any state.

Europe

In Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, and Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

it is illegal to insult foreign heads of state publicly.

On 5 January 2005, Marxist tabloid publisher Jerzy Urban
Jerzy Urban
Jerzy Urban , also known as: Jerzy Kibic, Jan Rem, Klakson born Jerzy Urbach, is a Jewish-Polish journalist, commentator, writer and politician, editor-in-chief of the weekly Nie and owner of the company which owns it, Urma.-Before 1989:Urban was born in Jewish family in Łódź. His father was an...

was sentenced by a Polish court to a fine of 20,000 złoty (about €5000 or US$6,200) for having insulted Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

, a visiting head of state.
On January 26–27, 2005, 28 human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

activists were temporarily detained by the Polish authorities for allegedly insulting Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

, a visiting head of state. The activists were released after about 30 hours and only one was actually charged with insulting a foreign head of state.
In October 2006, a Polish man was arrested in Warsaw after expressing his dissatisfaction with the leadership of Lech
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...

and Jarosław Kaczyński by passing gas loudly.

Denmark

In Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, the monarch is protected by the usual libel paragraph (§ 267 of the penal code

Danish penalty law

The Danish Penal Code also known as The Danish Criminal Code is the codification of the central legal text and makes up the foundation of criminal law in Denmark.-History:The Penal Code is law number 126 of April 15, 1930 with later amendments...

which allows for up to four months of imprisonment), but §115 allows for doubling of the usual punishment when the regent is target of the libel. When a queen consort

Queen consort

A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...

, queen dowager

Queen Dowager

A queen dowager or dowager queen is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. In the case of the widow of a deceased emperor, the title of empress dowager is used...

or the crown prince is the target, the punishment may be increased by 50%. There are no historical records of §115 having ever been used, but in March 2011, Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

activists who unfurled a banner at a dinner at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference

2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference

The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 December and 18 December. The conference included the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate...

were charged under this section. They received minor sentences for other crimes, but were acquitted of the charge relating to the monarch.

Netherlands

In October 2007, a 47-year-old man was fined €400 for, amongst other things, lese-majesty in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

when he called Queen Beatrix a "whore" and described several sexual acts he would like to perform on her to a police officer.

Spain

The Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

satirical magazine El Jueves
El Jueves
is a Spanish satirical weekly magazine published in Barcelona. Its complete title is ""...

was fined for violation of Spain's lese-majesty laws after publishing an issue with a caricature of the Prince of Asturias

Felipe, Prince of Asturias

Felipe, Prince of Asturias de Borbón y de Grecia; born 30 January 1968), is the third child and only son of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía of Spain....

and his wife

Letizia, Princess of Asturias

Letizia, Princess of Asturias , is the wife of Felipe, Prince of Asturias, the heir apparent to the Spanish throne...

engaging in sexual intercourse on the cover in 2007.

Greece

The 14th article of the Constitution of Greece

Constitution of Greece

The Constitution of Greece , was created by the Fifth Revisional Parliament of the Hellenes and entered into force in 1975. It has been revised three times since, most significantly in 1986, and also in 2001 and in 2008. The Constitutional history of Greece goes back to the Greek War of...

makes it an offence for the press

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

to insult the President of Greece

President of Greece

The President of the Hellenic Republic , colloquially referred to in English as the President of Greece, is the head of state of Greece. The office of the President of the Republic was established after the Greek republic referendum, 1974 and formally by the Constitution of Greece in 1975. The...

(as well as Christianity and any other religion recognized by the state).

Morocco

Moroccans are routinely prosecuted for statements deemed offensive to the King. The penal code states that the minimum sentence for a statement made in private (i.e.: not broadcast) is imprisonment for 1 year. For a public offense to the King, the minimum sentence is 3 years. In both cases, the maximum is 5 years.

Recently, the case of Yassine Belassal The Fouad Mourtada Affair

The Fouad Mourtada Affair

Fouad Mourtada is a 26-year old Moroccan engineer who was sentenced by a Casablanca court to three years in prison for creating a fake profile of the king’s brother on Facebook. He was convicted on February 23rd, 2008 of "villainous practices linked to the alleged theft" of the prince's identity....

, and Nasser Ahmed (a 95 year-old who died in jail after being convicted of lese-majesty), revived the debate on these laws and their applications. In 2008, an 18 year-old was charged with "breach of due respect to the king" for writing "God, Country, Barca

FC Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

" on a school board, in reference to his favorite football club. The national motto of Morocco is "God, Country, King".

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

's Criminal Code

Law of Thailand

The law of Thailand is based on the civil law, but has influence from common law .-Sources of Law:The principle law sources in Thailand are:* Constitution of Thailand - prevails over other laws...

has carried a prohibition against lese-majesty since 1908. In 1932, when Thailand's monarchy ceased to be absolute and a constitution

Constitution of Thailand

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand is the supreme law of Thailand. Since the change from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional democracy in 1932, Thailand has had 17 charters and constitutions, reflecting the high degree of political instability and frequency of military coups faced...

was adopted, it too included language prohibiting lese-majesty. The 2007 Constitution of Thailand

2007 Constitution of Thailand

A Permanent Constitution for the Kingdom of Thailand was drafted by a committee established by the military junta that abrogated the previous 1997 Constitution. On August 19, 2007, a referendum was held in which 59.3% of the voters voted in favor of the constitution...

, and all seventeen versions since 1932, contain the clause, "The King shall be enthroned in a position of revered worship and shall not be violated. No person shall expose the King to any sort of accusation or action." Thai Criminal Code elaborates in Article 112: "Whoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the Heir-apparent or the Regent, shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years." Missing from the Code, however, is a definition of what actions constitute "defamation" or "insult". From 1990 to 2005, the Thai court system only saw four or five lese-majesty cases a year. From January 2006 to May 2011, however, more than 400 cases came to trial, an estimated 1,500 percent increase. Observers attribute the increase to increased polarization following the 2006 military coup and sensitivity over the elderly king's declining health.

Neither the King nor any member of the Royal Family has ever personally filed any charges under this law. In fact, during his birthday speech in 2005, King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Bhumibol Adulyadej

Bhumibol Adulyadej is the current King of Thailand. He is known as Rama IX...

encouraged criticism: "Actually, I must also be criticized. I am not afraid if the criticism concerns what I do wrong, because then I know." He later added, "But the King can do wrong.", in reference to those he was appealing to not to overlook his human nature. The Constitution does not provide the legal right for the royal family to defend themselves; accordingly they cannot file grievances on their own behalf. Instead, the responsibility has been granted to the state and to the public. Cases are often filed by state authorities or by individuals, and anyone may take action against anyone else. In one notable incident during the 2005–2006 political crisis

Thailand political crisis 2005-2006

In 2005 and 2006, a series of events occurred in Thailand as a result of an unrest with Thaksin Shinawatra that was supported by Sondhi Limthongkul and his coalitions...

, deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra

Thaksin Shinawatra

Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician, who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup....

and his political opponent Sondhi Limthongkul

Sondhi Limthongkul

Sondhi Limthongkul is a Thai media mogul and leader of the right-wing People's Alliance for Democracy . He was elected for leader of the New Politics Party ....

filed charges of lese-majesty against each other. Thaksin's alleged lese-majesty was one of the stated reasons for the Thai military's 2006 coup.

Social activists such as Sulak Sivaraksa

Sulak Sivaraksa

Sulak Sivaraksa [] is founder and director of the Thai NGO “Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation”, named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses and Nagapradeepa...

were charged with the crime in the 1980s and 1990s because they allegedly criticized the king; Sulak was eventually acquitted.

Frenchman Lech Tomasz Kisielewicz allegedly committed lese-majesty in 1995 by making a derogatory remark about a Thai princess while on board a Thai Airways

Thai Airways International

Thai Airways International Public Company Limited is the national flag carrier and largest airline of Thailand. Formed in 1988, the airline's headquarters are located in Chatuchak District, Bangkok, and operates out of Suvarnabhumi Airport. Thai is a founding member of the Star Alliance. Thai is a...

flight. Although in international airspace at the time, he was taken into custody upon landing in Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

and charged with offending the monarchy. He was detained for two weeks, released on bail, and acquitted after writing a letter of apology to the king, and deported. In March 2007, Swiss national Oliver Jufer was convicted of lese-majesty and sentenced to 10 years in jail for spray-painting graffiti on several portraits of the king while drunk in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. It is the capital of Chiang Mai Province , a former capital of the Kingdom of Lanna and was the tributary Kingdom of Chiang Mai from 1774 until 1939. It is...

; he was pardoned by the king on 12 April 2007 and deported.

In March 2008, Police Lieutenant Colonel Watanasak Mungkijakarndee of Bang Mod police station filed a case against Thai politician and supporter of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, Jakrapob Penkhair, for comments threatening violence made in a Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) event in August 2007 that Watanasak personally alleged was a threat to national security, a frequent claim made by Thai authorities. In 2008 BBC

BBC News

BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...

South-East Asia correspondent and FCCT vice-president Jonathan Head was accused of lese-majesty three times by Col. Watanasak. Col. Watanasak filed new charges highlighting a conspiracy connecting Thaksin Shinawatra, Jakrapob Penkhair and Jonathan Head to Veera Musikapong at the FCCT. Jonathan Head was subsequently transferred by the BBC to Turkey. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajiva has still not made a decision as to whether prosecutors should continue proceedings against Jakrapob Penkhair.

In September 2008, Harry Nicolaides

Harry Nicolaides

Harry Nicolaides is an Australian writer of Greek-Cypriot origin imprisoned in Thailand under the Thai lèse majesté law, for a passage in a 2005 novel of his deemed to defame the Thai monarchy. On 19 January 2009 he was sentenced to three years in prison...

from Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, was arrested at Bangkok's international airport and charged with lese-majesty, for an offending passage in his self published book Verisimilitude. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to three years in jail but then pardoned by the king, released, and deported.

On 29 April 2010, Thai businessman Wipas Raksakulthai

Wipas Raksakulthai

Wipas Raksakulthai is a Thai businessman currently serving a sentence for lèse majesté following a Facebook post to his account perceived to criticize King Bhumibol...

was arrested following a post to his Facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

account allegedly insulting Bhumibol.
The arrest was reportedly the first lese-majesty charge against a Thai Facebook user. In response, Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

named Wipas Thailand's first prisoner of conscience

Prisoner of conscience

Prisoner of conscience is a term defined in Peter Benenson's 1961 article "The Forgotten Prisoners" often used by the human rights group Amnesty International. It can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, or political views...

in nearly three decades.

On May 27, 2011, an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

citizen, Joe Gordon (Lerpong Wichaikhammat), was arrested on charges he insulted the country's monarchy, in part by posting a link on his blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

to a banned book about the ailing king. Gordon had lived in the United States for thirty years before returning to Thailand. He is also reportedly suspected of translating, from English into Thai, portions of The King Never Smiles
The King Never Smiles
The King Never Smiles is an unauthorized biography of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej by Paul M. Handley, a freelance journalist who lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Thailand. It is published by Yale University Press and was released in 2006...

– an unauthorized biography of King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Bhumibol Adulyadej

Bhumibol Adulyadej is the current King of Thailand. He is known as Rama IX...

– and posting them online along with articles he wrote that allegedly defame the royal family.
Recently, some interest on Gordon's case has been generated from the question of whether Thai authorities have any jurisdiction at all over free speech exercised in, or that published on servers located in the United States. In August 2011, Not The Nation, an anonymous website that satirizes

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

The Nation (Thailand), posted an article regarding the treatment of Harry Nicolaides, mentioned above, and described by NTN as lack[ing] writing talent and being an unemployable expatriate slacker, [but benefiting] from his relatability to his fellow Australians, many of whom are also talentless, unemployable expatriate slackers. This relatability is often referred to as “the Corby effect” after Schapelle Corby

Schapelle Corby

Schapelle Leigh Corby is an Australian woman convicted of drug smuggling who is imprisoned in Indonesia.Corby is serving a 20-year sentence for the importation of of cannabis into Bali, Indonesia...

, the blonde Australian surfer girl who was sentenced to 20 years in an Indonesia prison for smuggling 4.2 kilos of cannabis in 2005, and whose case sparked unprecedented outrage in the Australian press despite being legally similar to dozens of previous similar cases. The article goes on to explain that Joe Gordon, not being blonde, young or female and furthermore look[ing] nothing like the media-enforced image of the average American, ...his arrest has drawn no significant press coverage or media-fueled outrage by the American population, suggesting limited political gain in mounting an aggressive defense just before an election year. After being denied bail eight times, a shackled–and–handcuffed Gordon said in court on October 10, “I’m not fighting in the case. I’m pleading guilty, sirs.” A verdict and sentence is expected to be issued November 9.

In September 2011, computer programmer Surapak Puchaieseng was arrested, detained and had his computer confiscated after accused of insulting the Thai royal family on Facebook — his arrest marked the first lèse majesté case since prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra

Yingluck Shinawatra

Yingluck Shinawatra , or nickname Pu , is a Thai businesswoman and politician, member of the Pheu Thai Party, and the 28th Prime Minister of Thailand following the 2011 general election...

was elected. The October 10 AP report on Joe Gordon's plea adds that "Yingluck’s government has been just as aggressive in pursing the cases as its predecessors."

Others

In January, 2009 there was a diplomatic incident between Australia

Australia

and Kuwait

Kuwait

The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...

over an Australian woman being held for allegedly insulting the Emir

Emir

Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...

of Kuwait

Kuwait

during a fracas with Kuwaiti Immigration authorities.

Even though the Supreme Leader

Supreme leader

A supreme leader typically refers to a figure in the highest leadership position of an entity, group, organization, or state, who exercises strong or all-powerful authority over it. In religion, the supreme leader or supreme leaders is God or Gods...

of Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

is not a king, there are laws against insulting the station of the Supreme Leader.

United Kingdom

In Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, section 51 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 abolished the common law criminal offences of sedition

Sedition

In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...

and 'leasing-making'. The latter offence, also known as 'lease ˈliːz making', was considered an offence of lese-majesty or making remarks critical of the Monarch of the United Kingdom. It had not been prosecuted since 1715.

Europe

Denmark

Netherlands

Spain

Greece

Morocco

Thailand

Others

United Kingdom

See also