freedom from self-incrimination
- noun
- /ˈfriːdəm frəm ˌsɛlf ɪnˌkrɪməˈneɪʃən/
- Formal
:
libertad de autoincriminación
- The suspect invoked his freedom from self-incrimination during questioning.
Examples
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Every defendant has the right to freedom from self-incrimination.
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The lawyer reminded her client about his freedom from self-incrimination before the trial began.
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It is important for defendants to understand their freedom from self-incrimination when questioned in court.
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The suspect invoked his freedom from self-incrimination during the police interrogation.
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The suspect invoked his freedom from self-incrimination during the police interrogation.
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The lawyer reminded her client about his freedom from self-incrimination before the trial began.
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It is important for defendants to understand their freedom from self-incrimination when questioned in court.
Synonyms
1
8.5
The right to refuse to answer questions that could make you look guilty in court
Antonyms
How Protected
- Formal
- Specialized
130
7.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
freedom + from + self-incrimination
The construction 'freedom from X' is transparently compositional (a right to be free of something), and 'self-incrimination' can be parsed as 'incrimination of oneself'. However, 'self-incrimination' is a technical legal nominalization whose specific procedural meaning (the right to refuse testimony or questioning) carries specialized legal nuance that a B1 learner may not fully infer from the parts alone.
Etymology
Freedom from self-incrimination comes from the simple idea that no one should be forced to say something that makes them look guilty. Think of someone refusing to 'point the finger' at themselves; the word self means 'yourself' and incrimination means 'being blamed', so the phrase means 'the right to refuse to answer questions that could make you look guilty'.