1. THE FIRSTHAND THEORY: AN UPDATED RATIONALE FOR THE PRIVILEGE AGAINST SELF-INCRIMINATION.
- Author
-
Wallace-Wolf, Jordan
- Subjects
Privacy, Right of -- Psychological aspects -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Guilt (Law) -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Silence (Law) -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Memory -- Analysis -- Influence ,Self-incrimination -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Civil procedure -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Privileges and immunities -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Interest (Law) -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Persons (Law) -- Management -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Defense (Criminal procedure) -- Management -- Laws, regulations and rules ,Griffin v. California (380 U.S. 609 (1965)) ,Government regulation ,Company business management ,United States Constitution (U.S. Const. amend. 5) (U.S. Const. amend. 1) - Abstract
INTRODUCTION 1302 I. A SHORT OVERVIEW OF SELF-INCRIMINATION SCHOLARSHIP 1306 A. The Privilege as a Means to Fulfill the Goals of the Legal System 1307 B. The Privilege as the [...], A debate has raged for decades, or even centuries by some measures, about the justification for the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Why have it? Some think it protects a deep-seated moral interest in silence, whereas others think it is, at most, a means of promoting an effective or restrained criminal system. Neither camp has made progress, and in the late 2000s, many came to believe it was futile to seek an overarching justification for the privilege. This paper seeks to unsettle that belief by showing that the debate about the privilege was never as stagnant as it seemed. More importantly, it seeks to push the debate forward with an upgraded argument. Specifically, I argue that the privilege against self-incrimination protects a distinct aspect of a person s mental privacy. This general idea has steadily developed to meet various objections over its lifetime, but its current elaboration is still problematic. It can be further improved by understanding the role of memory in developing and sustaining personhood and the value of shielding its operation from the ideology of the community, even when the latter is eminently justified. Persons have a moral interest (and a First Amendment interest) in developing a conception of themselves firsthand through unmediated cognitive contact with the circumstances of their lives. One urgent instance of this interest--what I call the "interest in firsthand thinking" or the "firsthand interest" for short--is the opportunity to reckon with one's (mis)deeds. Elaborating the legal consequences of this interest yields, in turn, what I refer to as the "Firsthand Theory" of the privilege against self-incrimination. This theory can address several objections to previous mental-privacy theories of the privilege. It also answers three enduring questions: Why should juries be prohibited from inferring a silent defendant's guilt from their silence? Why is the privilege unavailable in civil proceedings? When, if ever, will immunity permit compelling someone to incriminate themselves?
- Published
- 2024