Witness’s oath as a way to Counter Deliberately False Testimony in Civil Cases: Pro et Contra

The paper examines the use of the witness oath in Russian civil proceedings. The purpose of the paper is to theoretically substantiate the use of the witness oath in Russian civil proceedings as a way to counter deliberately false testimony of witnesses in civil cases. The author examines historical aspects of the judicial oath, as well as comparative legal aspects of the use of the witness oath in civil proceedings in some other countries, namely, the Republic of Turkey, the Republic of Uzbekistan. The first step towards eliminating the religious content of the judicial oath was taken in the modern period in Russian constitutional court proceedings. However, the normative text of the oath does not take into account a number of socio-psychological factors. It is concluded that it is advisable to introduce an oath into civil proceedings, and not an oath of a witness, since historically the judicial oath has always had a religious content. The author analyzes legally and psychologically justified approaches to the normative text of the judicial oath and proposes appropriate changes in civil procedural legislation. In part 2 of Article 177 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, according to the author, it is necessary to fix the obligation of a witness to pronounce an oath before interrogation in court, as well as the normative text of such an oath: «In the face of the Russian state court, I swear on my honor to tell everything I know about the case. I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.»

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