Incest Act 1567

The Incest Act of 1567 is an Act of the Parliament of Scotland, the first piece of Scottish legislation to criminalise incest, and the basis of incest laws in that country to this day.^[1] Incest is defined as “penile-vaginal penetration between two members within the specified degrees of relationship”.^[2]

In the late 16th and 17th centuries, in response to pressure from the clergy to create “a godly society”, the Scottish parliament passed a number of Acts classifying a variety of sexual offences as crimes that could be tried in the secular courts.^[3] In order of perceived seriousness they were:^[3]

• Fornication, punishable by a fine or imprisonment
• Adultery, punishable by death, although rarely enforced
• Incest, punishable by death
• Sodomy, punishable by death
• Bestiality, punishable by death
• Rape, punishable by death, but the female victim could also find herself liable to prosecution

The Incest Act of 1567 is based on the Biblical Book of Leviticus 18:6–17 which lists the forbidden degrees of consanguinityRelationship between individuals descended from common ancestors., and affinity – specifically Leviticus 18:20 which prohibits carnal knowledge of a neighbour’s wife – for sexual relations between a man and a woman. It was not however restricted to the relations specified in Leviticus, insofar as where the relationship between a man and a woman is expressed, the corresponding relationship between a woman and a man is also implied.^[3][4]

It proved difficult to prosecute under the Incest Act of 1567, owing to its vagueness, which was remedied by the Incest Act of 1649, which contained a detailed list of prohibited degrees.^[5] That Act was repealed in 1661, and did not in any event address the vexed question of which version of the Bible was to be considered authorative by the courts. The Solicitor General decided in 1913 that the Geneva Bible of 1562, a copy of which was held by the National Library of Scotland, was the authorative version when the Act was passed in 1567.^[2]