oath

Any form of attestation by which a person signifies that he is bound in conscience to perform an act faithfully and truthfully, e.g. President's oath on entering office, Art. II, Sec. 1, U.S.Const. Vaughn v. State, 146 Tex.Cr.R. 586,177 S.W.2d 59, 60.

An affirmation of truth of a statement, which renders one willfully asserting untrue statements punishable for perjury. An outward pledge by the person taking it that his attestation or promise is made under an immediate sense of responsibility to God. A solemn appeal to the Supreme Being in attestation of the truth of some statement.

An external pledge or asseveration, made in verification of statements made, or to be made, coupled with an appeal to a sacred or venerated object, in evidence of the serious and reverent state of mind of the party, or with an invocation to a supreme being to witness the words of the party, and to visit him with punishment if they be false.

In its broadest sense, the term is used to include all forms of attestation by which a party signifies that he is bound in conscience to perform the act faithfully and truly.

In a more restricted sense, it excludes all those forms of attestation or promise which are not accompanied by an imprecation.

See also affirmation

- attestation

- false swearing

- jurat

- loyalty oath

- pauper's oath

- verification.

@ affirmation in lieu of oath

Fed.R.Civil P. 43 provides that whenever an oath is required under the rules, a solemn affirmation may be accepted in lieu thereof.

See also art

II, Sec. 1, and Art. VI, U.S.Const.

@ assertory oath

/asartsriy owfl/

One relating to a past or present fact or state of facts, as distinguished from a "promissory" oath which relates to future conduct; particularly, any oath required by law other than in judicial proceedings and upon induction to office, such, for example, as an oath to be made at the custom-house relative to goods imported.

See oath

@

- corporal oath

@ decisive or derisory oath

@ decisive oath

@ derisory oath

@ decisive or derisory oath

decisive, or decisory, oath

In the civil law, where one of the parties to a suit, not being able to prove his charge, offered to refer the decision of the cause to the oath of his adversary, which the adversary was bound to accept, to tender the same proposal back again, otherwise the whole was taken as confessed by him.

See oath

@ extrajudicial oath

One not taken in any judicial proceeding, or without any authority or requirement of law, though taken formally before a proper person.

+ extrajudicial oath

One taken not in the course of judicial proceedings, or taken without any authority of law, though taken formally before a proper person

@ false oath

To defeat discharge in bankruptcy "false oath" must contain all the elements involved in "perjury" at common law, namely, an intentional untruth in matter material to a material issue. It must have been knowingly and fraudulently made. In re Stone, D.C. N.H., 52 F.2d 639, 641.

See also false swearing

- perjury

@ judicial oath

One taken in some judicial proceeding or in relation to some matter connected with judicial proceedings. One taken before an officer in open court, as distinguished from a "non-judicial" oath, which is taken before an officer ex parte or out of court.

See also witnesses, oath

@

- loyalty oath

@ oath of office

Various declarations of promises, made by persons who are about to enter upon the duties of a public office, concerning their performance of that office. An oath of office is required, by federal and state constitutions, and by various statutes, to be made by major and minor officials.

See e.g. 28 U.S.C.A. No. 544 (U.S. attorneys).

See also oath of allegiance; and official oath, below

@ official oath

One taken by an officer when he assumes charge of his office, whereby he declares that he will faithfully discharge the duties of the same, or whatever else may be required by statute in the particular case.

See Art. VI, U.S. Const.

See also oath of office above.

@ poor debtor's oath

See pauper's oath.

@ promissory oaths

Oaths which bind the party to observe a certain course of conduct, or to fulfill certain duties, in the future, or to demean himself thereafter in a stated manner with reference to specified objects or obligations; such, for example, as the oath taken by a high executive officer, a legislator, a judge, a person seeking naturalization, an attorney at law. A solemn appeal to God, or, in a wider sense, to some superior sanction or a sacred or revered person in witness of the inviolability of a promise or undertaking.

@ purgatory oath

An oath by which a person purges or clears himself from presumptions, charges or suspicions standing against him, or from a contempt.

@ solemn oath

A corporal oath.

@ suppletory oath

In the civil and ecclesiastical law, the testimony of a single witness to a fact is called "halfproof," on which no sentence can be founded; in order to supply the other half of proof, the party himself (plaintiff or defendant) is admitted to be examined in his own behalf, and the oath administered to him for that purpose is called the "suppletory oath," because it supplies the necessary quantum of proof on which to found the sentence. This term, although without application in American law in its original sense, is sometimes used as a designation of a party's oath required to be taken in authentication or support of some piece of documentary evidence which he offers, for example, his books of account.

@ voluntary oath

Such as a person may take in extrajudicial matters, and not regularly in a court of justice, or before an officer invested with authority to administer the same.

@

Witnesses.

Before testifying, every witness shall be required to declare that he will testify, truthfully, by oath or affirmation administered in a form calculated to awaken his conscience and impress his mind with his duty to do so. Fed.Evid.R. 603.

See also affirmation in lieu of oath, above

@ oath against bribery

In England, one which could have been administered to a voter at an election for members of parliament. Abolished in 1854

@ oath ex officio

/owff eks afish(iy)ow/

In old English law, the oath by which a clergyman charged with a criminal offense was formerly allowed to swear himself to be innocent; also the oath by which the compurgators swore that they believed in his innocence

@ oath in litem

/6w0 in laytam/

In the civil law, an oath permitted to be taken by the plaintiff, for the purpose of proving the value of the subject-matter in controversy, when there was no other evidence on that point, or when the defendant fraudulently suppressed evidence which might have been available

@ oath of allegiance

@ oath of loyalty

@ oath of allegiance or loyalty

oath of allegiance or loyalty

An oath by which a person promises and binds himself to bear true allegiance to a particular sovereign or government (e.g., the United States), and to support its Constitution, administered generally to certain public officers or officials, to members of the armed services, to attorneys on being admitted to the bar, to aliens applying for naturalization (8 U.S.C.A. No. 1448), etc. Such oaths which are not overbroad have been upheld. Elfbrandt v. Russell, 384 U.S. 11, 86 S.Ct. 1238, 16 L.Ed.2d 321; Cole v. Richardson, 405 U.S. 676, 92 S.Ct. 1332, 31 L.Ed.2d 593.

As to oath of allegiance to the Constitution as required of President, members of Congress, and executive and judicial officers, see Art. II, Sec. 1, and Art. VI, U.S. Const.

It is commonly provided that an affirmation may be given in lieu of an oath

@ oath of calumny

/6w0 av kslamniy/ In the civil law, an oath which a plaintiff was obliged to take that he was not prompted by malice or trickery in commencing his action, but that he had bona fide a good cause of action

@ oath-rite

The form used at the taking of an oath

@