Lies, deception, and bullshit in law
-
Lawrence M. Solan
Abstract
In 1973, the Supreme Court established a “literal truth” defense to perjury prosecutions. Samuel Bronston, a film producer, had filed for bankruptcy. When asked under oath if he had ever held bank accounts in Switzerland, he testified, “The company had an account there for about six months, in Zurich.” That much was true. But it was also true that Bronston himself previously had bank accounts in Switzerland and wished to conceal these assets from his creditors. The Supreme Court unanimously held that Bronston did not commit perjury because he didn’t lie. Rather, he merely deceived, and the perjury statute does not cover deception committed by telling half-truths. It was up to the prosecutor to discover the deception. This narrative raises both legal and moral issues. This chapter will explore both.
Abstract
In 1973, the Supreme Court established a “literal truth” defense to perjury prosecutions. Samuel Bronston, a film producer, had filed for bankruptcy. When asked under oath if he had ever held bank accounts in Switzerland, he testified, “The company had an account there for about six months, in Zurich.” That much was true. But it was also true that Bronston himself previously had bank accounts in Switzerland and wished to conceal these assets from his creditors. The Supreme Court unanimously held that Bronston did not commit perjury because he didn’t lie. Rather, he merely deceived, and the perjury statute does not cover deception committed by telling half-truths. It was up to the prosecutor to discover the deception. This narrative raises both legal and moral issues. This chapter will explore both.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction: On lying and disleading 1
-
I Lies and deception: The landscape of falsehood
- Lying, deception, and related concepts: A conceptual map for ethics 15
- The morality of deception 41
- Kant tell an a priori lie 65
-
II Lying, deception, and speaker commitment: Empirical evidence
- Is lying morally different from misleading? An empirical investigation 89
- “I was only quoting”: Shifting viewpoint and speaker commitment 113
- Memefying deception and deceptive memefication: Multimodal deception on social media 139
-
III Puffery, bluffery, bullshit: How to not quite lie
- Bald-faced bullshit and authoritarian political speech: Making sense of Johnson and Trump 165
- Practice to deceive: A natural history of the legal bluff 195
- Just saying, just kidding: Liability for accountability-avoiding speech in ordinary conversation, politics and law 227
-
IV Crossing the perjury threshold: Deceit and falsehood in the courtroom
- Perjury cases and the linguist 261
- Trickery and deceit: How the pragmatics of interrogation leads innocent people to confess – and factfinders to believe their confessions 289
- The context of mistrust: Perjury ascriptions in the courtroom 309
- What counts as a lie in and out of the courtroom? The effect of discourse genre on lie judgments 353
- Lies, deception, and bullshit in law 381
- Index 409
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- Introduction: On lying and disleading 1
-
I Lies and deception: The landscape of falsehood
- Lying, deception, and related concepts: A conceptual map for ethics 15
- The morality of deception 41
- Kant tell an a priori lie 65
-
II Lying, deception, and speaker commitment: Empirical evidence
- Is lying morally different from misleading? An empirical investigation 89
- “I was only quoting”: Shifting viewpoint and speaker commitment 113
- Memefying deception and deceptive memefication: Multimodal deception on social media 139
-
III Puffery, bluffery, bullshit: How to not quite lie
- Bald-faced bullshit and authoritarian political speech: Making sense of Johnson and Trump 165
- Practice to deceive: A natural history of the legal bluff 195
- Just saying, just kidding: Liability for accountability-avoiding speech in ordinary conversation, politics and law 227
-
IV Crossing the perjury threshold: Deceit and falsehood in the courtroom
- Perjury cases and the linguist 261
- Trickery and deceit: How the pragmatics of interrogation leads innocent people to confess – and factfinders to believe their confessions 289
- The context of mistrust: Perjury ascriptions in the courtroom 309
- What counts as a lie in and out of the courtroom? The effect of discourse genre on lie judgments 353
- Lies, deception, and bullshit in law 381
- Index 409
