Report No. 28

16. Contrary view as to utility.-On the other hand, there are equally eminent authorities who have taken a contrary view. Kant1 regards the taking of an oath as a security for ensuring the trustworthiness of testimony.

Wigmore2 after observing that the theory of oath in modem common law is a subjective one, states that the oath-

"is a method of reminding the witness strongly of the Divine punishment somewhere in store for false swearing, and thus of putting him in a frame of mind calculated to speak only the truth as he saw it."

1. Kant Philosophy of Law, Dr. W. Hashes Translation, (1887), pp. 151-152.

2. Wigmore Evidence (2nd Edn.), 1923, Vol. III, p. 857, para. 1816.