Saga - 2009, Page 88

Abstract
guðn i th . j óhannes son
T R e A S o N I N I C e L A N D . L AW S , C H A R G e S
A N D J U D G e M e N T S
Iceland’s autumn 2008 banking collapse has led to considerable discussion about
whether those thought to bear responsibility for it were guilty of treason, either
deliberately or through negligence. While such accusations are most frequently
connected with the Icesave controversy, some of those strongly opposed to Icelandic
membership in the european Union have declared that officials who support eU
membership are thereby guilty of treason.
Such accusations were the catalyst for this article. The aim is to offer an overview
of laws and of judicial charges and decisions concerning treason, spanning from
Iceland’s Commonwealth era to the present, but emphasising the period after
1869, when a general penal code took effect. This overview demonstrates how the
ancient concept of treason has changed over the course of time. Broadly speaking,
treason may be said since ancient times to have consisted on the one hand of be-
traying one’s sovereign and state, for example by supporting a wartime enemy,
and on the other hand of insulting or dishonouring the head of state or her/his
family.
Although treason was still considered among the most serious of crimes ac-
cording to the 1869 penal code and the revised code of 1940, the provisions for
punishing it grew weaker, as was indeed the case for other crimes. However, the
code chapters dealing with treason continue to apply to insulting or dishonour-
ing the head of state, as well as the envoys and employees of foreign states. The
article treats court verdicts on such offences and shows that the public sense of
justice has little by little evolved away from the punishments provided for in the
treason chapter of the penal code. The conclusion is that since insults to the rep-
resentatives of foreign states do not fall under the contemporary idea of treason, the
appropriate solution would be to change the penal code chapter so that it would
not treat such insults alongside espionage for foreign states and attempts to over-
throw the Icelandic government.
Another major topic of the article is how allegations or insinuations of trea-
son have been employed in Icelandic political disputes, starting with the first con-
certed efforts to obtain increased rights from the Danes in the latter part of the
19th century. Developing into a general term of abuse, the treason concept was
overused and diluted, as has recently been demonstrated so clearly during the on-
going debates about the bank crisis, Icesave and the european Union.
guðni th. jóhannesson88
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