Treason and Lords of Justiciary and counterfeiting the Great Seal of Scotland remain treason under sections 11 and 12 of the Treason Act 1708 respectively. Treason is a reserved matter about which the Scottish Parliament is prohibited from legislating. Two acts of the former Parliament of Ireland passed in 1537 and 1542 create further treasons which apply in Northern Ireland. The penalty for treason was changed from death to a maximum of imprisonment for life in 1998 under the Crime And Disorder Act. Before 1998, the death penalty was mandatory, subject to the royal prerogative of mercy. Since the abolition of
Capital punishment in New Zealand Labour cabinet in November 1989 with the passage of the "Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 1989", and there were no further executions during the interim period. Passage of the "Abolition of the Death Penalty Act" ended all capital punishment in New Zealand. The Cook Islands, which based its statutes on New Zealand law, formally retained the death penalty for treason until it was abolished in 2007. The death penalty was never used in the Cook Islands. Occasional calls to reinstate capital punishment still occur, but no major political party has made capital punishment an element of any of their