Contempt of the sovereign (also called contempt of statute) was an ancient doctrine in English law dating from medieval times, and now obsolete.
It was the crime imputed by common law whereby a person disobeyed an act of Parliament which did not say what the penalty was nor how it was to be enforced – the crime itself was recognised.
The doctrine was based on the original custom that an act of Parliament was an expression of the sovereign's will, enacted with the "advice and consent" of Parliament.
This article related to English law is a stub.
You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.This article related to the politics of England is a stub.