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1827. Octr +
Law Amendments
10
Propositions
(1) (10 § . No Oath
29
It will not be maintained
that punishment in a
future life for falsehood
depends on the
performance of the ceremony
of the oath
It will scarcely be maintained as fit to be believed that punishment for
falshood in a future life at the hands of almighty justice depends
altogether on the fact of a man's having on the occasion of the utterance
of it borne a part in the ceremony stiled swearing or taking
an Oath. If it does not then will the magnitude of that punishment be in its
quantity in proportioned to the guilt of the act of falshood in all other
respects: it will scarcely be maintained as fit to be believed
that when whenever this ceremony has been performed borne a part in the punishment
will be in every case the same, whatever for example has
been, in the full view of the utterer of the falshood, the causing
a multitude of innocent persons to lose their lives, is the costing
some one of them to lose the value of a shilling
30
Strange if the certainty
of immediate punishment
by the proposed plan
would not more than
compensate for the
supposed additional
prospect of future punishment
by the in
consequence of the oath
It will be strange indeed, if the contemplative assurance of
the immediate and almost instant punishment which upon the
proposed plan will be the consequence of the utterance of the
falshood will not more than compensate for any supposed
addition that will be made in a future life to the punishment
proportioned to the particular offence by the punishment for an offence which
is in whatever every case the same, that is to say the violation of the
oath, an offence which thus taken by itself is not productive
of suffering to any human being in any shape
31
Needlessness of the oath
proved in Denmark
The needlessness of the ceremony of an oath as a security against falshood is not
mere matter of speculation: it is not mere matter of inference
and argument. It has been proved in the Denmark — in
the judicial practice of that country by a very considerable
length of experience. In the Year a sort of judicatory
was established under the name of Consolidation Judicatory. [In
the mode of its procedure among its arrangements was this, namely
that no oath was administered on the occasion of any testimony
there delivered. The good effects of this institution in the diminution of the
number
number of wrongs committed
and thereby and those only
and not by the expense
for the suit been
all carried on without
pecuniary expense has
become so notorious, as
to have had more or less influence on judicial procedure in countries there it is believed than any, but at any rate, to a certainty in France; witness the seals carried in before the Jury
the
de Paix.
In this sort of Judicatory, whatsoever may be
the quantity of falshood uttered, no legal punishment
no prosecution follows. But, if such be
the effect of the two other of the abovementioned security
how much greater might not the effect be when punishments
immediately applied legal punishment is added? de Paix
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Identifier: | JB/057/308/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 57. |
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1827-10 |
29-31 |
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057 |
law amendment |
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308 |
law amendments |
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001 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
c1 / d10 / e10 |
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jeremy bentham |
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18638 |
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