Introduction

• Library: The Privilege of Silence: Fifth Amendment Protections Against Self-Incrimination (ABA) (2014 Ed.)

Introduction

The U.S. Constitution provides that "[n]o person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." U.S. Const. amend. V. While this portion of the Fifth Amendment, most often referred to as the "privilege against self-incrimination," contains only 15 words, its application can be deceptively complex. The clause has generally defied a comprehensive theoretical justification and, instead, has been aptly described as "an unsolved riddle of vast proportions, a Gordian Knot in the middle of our Bill of Rights." See Akhil Reed Amar and Renee B. Lettow, Fifth Amendment First Principles: The Self-incrimination Clause, 93 Mich. L. Rev. 857 (1995). Application of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination is dependent on the factual setting in which the privilege is asserted, with the values served by the privilege often balanced against the competing interests at stake.

This book is designed primarily to elucidate the contours of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in practice and to provide a guide for both the civil litigator who may confront the privilege infrequently as well as the criminal lawyer who seeks to advance his or her client's...