Reports
- The Legal Framework of Treason (Online-Workshop, 7-8 February 2025)
- MetaHistory of Treason: How to Write a Transepochal and Transcultural History of Treason
- The Cultural Representation of Treason and Traitors: Language, Narratives, and Media (Workshop, Freiburg, 23-24 September 2025)
Working Papers
The question of defining treason in Roman History through proditio and perduellio
Dr. Cynthia Couhade-Beyneix (Bordeaux) :
Abstract: This paper examines the evolving concept of treason in Roman history by focusing on two key terms: proditio and perduellio. Far from being fixed categories, both terms reflect the political, legal, and rhetorical shifts across the Roman Kingdom, Republic, and Empire. Proditio was used broadly—from military betrayal to political invective—and carried moral, legal, and emotional weight. Perduellio, by contrast, was a formal charge of high treason rooted in early criminal law, later supplanted by crimen maiestatis. The paper highlights how Romans pragmatically employed accusations of treason, blurring the lines between law, politics, and rhetoric.
ROBESPIERRE: CONSPIRATOR, TYRANT, MONSTER. THE ‘TERRORIST’ AS TRAITOR, 1794-95
Dr. Mike Rapport (Glasgow)
Abstract: This paper examines the rhetorical construction of Maximilien Robespierre as a traitor by the Thermidorians following his fall on 9 Thermidor, focusing on three key labels: ‘conspirator’, ‘monster’, and ‘tyrant’. Far from being simple invective, these terms reflect the political and moral strategies used to exculpate the new leadership from its own complicity in the Terror. The ‘conspirator’ narrative was used broadly to explain past acquiescence, while casting Robespierre as a ‘monster’ served to justify his execution without trial. The ultimate charge of ‘tyrant’ aimed to legitimize the Thermidorians’ own use of similar repressive measures. The paper highlights how these accusations of treason pragmatically blurred the lines between political rhetoric, self-preservation, and legal justification
THE RISE AND FALL OF ‘TRAITORS’ DURING ERAS OF REGIME CHANGE
Prof. Mark Cornwall
Abstract: This paper explores how the concept of ‘traitors’ emerges and is managed by governments during eras of regime change and crisis. It argues that treason is an inherently subjective and situational concept, defined by those who hold power and often used as a tool to establish legitimacy, punish dissent, and shape a new legal order. Using case studies from the late Habsburg Empire, post-World War II Norway, and Czechoslovakia, the paper contrasts different approaches to prosecuting treason. It examines the mass trials of ‘collaborator-traitors’ after 1945 and the Habsburg regime’s varying use of treason charges during its crises in 1848 and 1918. The paper concludes that while prosecuting traitors can consolidate a new regime’s authority, clumsy or excessive application of treason laws often backfires, delegitimizing the state and hindering long-term social reconciliation.
Research Notes
On the Need for a History of High Treason in the Federal Republic of Germany
Prof. André Krischer
Abstract: For decades, the legal category of high treason (Sections 81 et seq. of the German Criminal Code) played hardly any practical role in the history of the Federal Republic; remarkably, the charge was deliberately avoided even in the case of the RAF. All the more striking is the recent currency of the concept of treason, which has become virulent in two opposing discourses. On the one hand, it serves as a political term of abuse (‘Volksverräter’ or ‘traitor to the people’) in right-wing populist milieus. On the other, the constitutional state is reactivating this very offence to defend itself against violent plots to overthrow the government originating from these same milieus, particularly the ‘Reichsbürger’ scene. At the centre of the indictments by the Federal Public Prosecutor General is the preparation of a treasonous enterprise (Section 83 of the German Criminal Code). This research note outlines this contradictory dynamic and points to the need to re-examine the history of high treason in the Federal Republic.