Political Offences

Political Offences are usually exempted from treaties of Extradition (q.v.), by which a government agrees to arrest and surrender persons who have broken the law of a foreign state. A political offence may be defined as an offence committed in carrying on civil war or open insurrection. In November 1890 the English judges had to decide whether the Swiss government could demand the extradition of one Castioni, who was proved to have shot a member of the ministry during a revolution excited by the Liberals in the canton of Ticino. There was some evidence that the prisoner was moved by private malice; but the judges held that his act was prima facie political, and gave him the benefit of the exception in the treaty. The Conspiracy Bill of 1858, introduced after Orsini's attempt on the life of Napoleon III., proposed to make conspiracy to murder a felony instead of a misdemeanour. It was intended to secure the French emperor against plotters in England, and caused the fall of Palmerston's government, as being contrary to English traditions. As between a government and its subjects political offences have often been treated with extreme severity, as may be seen on referring to the Roman law relating to perduellio and læsa majestas. In France and Scotland the law of treason was framed on the model of those laws which had been made to protect the person and government of the Roman emperor and the interests of the Roman state; the old English law of treason was also extremely severe. In modern times the tendency is to treat offences against the state according to the ordinary principles of criminal law. There are, however, two kinds of crime which raise political questions of some interest. (1) Crimes committed in the territory of one state against the government of another. The Foreign Enlistment Acts were passed to enable the British government to deal with persons who levy troops and prepare armaments against a foreign government within British territory. Some writers of authority have censured the American government for permitting Fenians within its jurisdiction to levy war against the British empire. (2) Crimes committed by persons who honestly think they have a grievance against the government of their own country. In such cases the political motive is not, in law, regarded as an excuse; if e.g. a member of parliament incites to a breach of the law, magistrates and prison authorities must deal with him as with any other offender. A humane government will often extend special indulgence to political offences. Whether such indulgence should be granted (whether e.g. an Irish member in prison should be exempted from ordinary prison rules) is a question of discretion, not of legal right. The dynamiters who in 1882-85 attempted the destruction of English public buildings were properly treated as mere criminals, without regard to any alleged political aims.