The Treason Act 1766 was an Act

Act of Parliament

An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...

 of the Parliament of Great Britain

Parliament of Great Britain

The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland...

. The long title

Long title

The long title is the formal title appearing at the head of a statute or other legislative instrument...

 was "An Act for altering the Oath of Abduration and the Assurance; and for amending so much of an Act of the Seventh Year of her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled, An Act for the Improvement of the Union of the two Kingdoms

Treason Act 1708

The Treason Act 1708 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which harmonised the law of high treason between the former kingdoms of England and Scotland following their union as Great Britain in 1707. It came into effect on 1 July 1709. Some of it is still in force today...

, as, after the Time therein limited, requires the Delivery of certain Lists and Copies therein mentioned to Persons indicted of High Treason

High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...

, or Misprision of Treason

Misprision of treason

Misprision of treason is an offence found in many common law jurisdictions around the world, having been inherited from English law. It is committed by someone who knows a treason is being or is about to be committed but does not report it to a proper authority...

."

Sections 1 and 2 of the Act were concerned with the oath of abjuration

Oath of Abjuration

The Act of Abjuration or Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, signed on 26 July 1581, was the formal declaration of independence of the Dutch Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II...

. Section 3 of the Act disapplied certain procedural requirements in cases of high treason consisting of counterfeit

Counterfeit

To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...

ing the king's coin, namely the requirement that the accused be given a list of the witnesses and the jurors. (This requirement had only come into force in 1766, on the death of James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...

, the Jacobite

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

 pretender to the throne.)

It was repealed on 15 June 1945 by section 2(1) of, and the Schedule to, the Treason Act 1945

Treason Act 1945

The Treason Act 1945 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.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...

.