E. Israel.

The article discusses the privilege against self-incrimination under the law in Israel. Both near relatives and wrongdoers are incompetent witnesses. The incompetency of near relatives was based on an interpretation of the scripture to the effect that a man may not be put to death either for the sins of his parents or of his children or because of, that is, on the testimony of, his parents or children. The incompetency of wrongdoers was derived from the scripture, put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness, which was read to mean that the wicked are bound to be unrighteous witnesses and therefore are incompetent. Where witnesses to a deed testified that at the time they had witnessed the deed they were incompetent for reason of their sinfulness, their evidence as to their witnessing the deed was held admissible and that as to their incompetency was held inadmissible. The question thus arose whether a man's statement may be divided so that only the self-incriminating part would be inadmissible, whereas the neutral part would be admissible in evidence. The rule that the confession to a criminal act would serve as a civil cause of action, but would not be admitted as evidence in criminal proceedings, was applied to confessions of arson, embezzlement, the taking of usurious interest and by analogy of adultery, the confessing wife losing her claim to maintenance and other monetary benefits, but not her status as a married woman and incurring no liability to be divorced or punished on the strength of her confession only.