un faux témoignage

English translation: false testimony

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	un faux témoignage
English translation:	false testimony
Entered by:	claudiabi

19:47 Apr 23, 2008

French to English translations [PRO]
Law/Patents - Law (general) / attestation légale

French term or phrase: un faux témoignage

Sachant qu'un faux témoignage m'expose à des sanctions pénales

knowing that a perjury will expose myself to penal sanctions (?)

je crois qu'en anglais on transformerait plutôt le substantif avec une forme sujet+verbe : ex. Knowing that if I give false testimony I will run into penal sanctions.

merci
claudia

claudiabi Not a translator KudoZ activity Questions: 110 (none open) (11 closed without grading) Answers: 193
Local time: 11:31

false testimony

Explanation:
You've answered your own question as far as I'm concerned and need look no further.

FALSE TESTIMONY - Testimony is "false" if it was untrue when it was given and was then known to be untrue by the witness or person giving it. A statement contained within a document is false if it was untrue when used and was then known to be untrue by the person using it.
http://www.lectlaw.com/def/f015.htm

The appropriate conduct depends on the circumstances facing the lawyer when he or she learns of the proposed false testimony: ...
www.mass.gov/obcbbo/false.htm

The Senate acquitted him on the false testimony charge as cause to remove him from office by a vote of 55 not-guilty votes to 45 guilty votes. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjury

Watchtower Teaches Youngsters To Give False Testimony in Court. by David Reed. When Jehovah's Witnesses go to court in a child custody case, they and their ...
www.freeminds.org/psych/youthlie.htm
[Hmm, don't they know about Commandment No. 9, "Thou shalt not bear false witness"?]

After the jury returned a guilty verdict, appellant's counsel discovered that Dr. Dietz had given false testimony. The producer of "Law & Order" spoke to ...
www.masspsy.com/columns/0502_ne_stern.html

Knowing that false testimony may result in penal sanctions being made against me ... Not to mention burning in hellfire.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-04-23 22:11:58 GMT)
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Bref, no article. And the same would apply to "perjury" if you wished to use that, if there is not a difference between the two.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-04-23 22:24:46 GMT)
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This implies that they are two different things:

The 55-45 roll call by which the Senate voted to reject the article of impeachment alleging that President Clinton COMMITTED PERJURY AND PROVIDED FALSE TESTIMONY before a grand jury with regard to the Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit and his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinto...

And this confirms it:
Views of perjury have differed throughout history. The interpretation of perjury in the US is that it is an INTENTIONAL FALSE STATEMENT and that it MUST BE IN REALTIONSHIP TO THE JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. It also is seen as basically a matter of criminal, rather than civil, law
[ ... ] To be guilty of PERJURY, one must GIVE FALSE TESTIMONY KNOWINGLY AND WILLFULLY on a matter that is MATERIAL TO THE JUDICIAL PROCEEDING. That is, both intentionality and materiality are essential aspects of the crime. A person who unintentionally makes a false statement under oath, whether through ignorance of the truth or through an honest mistake, is not guilty of perjury. Nor is a person guilty of perjury if he deliberately makes false statements on matters that are unrelated to the judicial proceeding; to constitute perjury, the false testimony must be germane to the case.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-55439530.html

So if I believe a white car knocked down the old lady when in fact it was a red car, I am giving false testimony but am not guilty of perjury. If I say it was a white car because I know you were driving the red car that hit her, I am giving false testimony but am also guilty of perjury. That'll be 5000 euros please ...

The question is: is the same distinction made in French law? In which case "faux témoignage" ALONE would NOT expose one to penal sanctions. What is the context?

Maybe the person THINKS that false testimony could put him in prison and therefore prefers to say nothing in case it turns out he is wrong (that actually wouldn't surprise me under the French legal system and would explain why people generally ignore crime around them and carry on as if nothing happened). As opposed to KNOWING he is wrong because he is deliberately inventing. In which case I don't understand why the person is spelling it out.

More context needed.

Selected response from:

Bourth (X)
Local time: 11:31

Grading comment

thanks
claudia
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

false testimony

Bourth (X)

4 +2

a perjury

Jean-Claude Gouin

4 +1

false evidence

David BUICK

for info

Graham macLachlan

perjury (by a witness); false evidence (when given by a witness not under oath)

Conor McAuley

Knowing that perjury will expose me to penal sanctions

Gad Kohenov

Discussion entries: 9

claudiabi

ASKER

to Graham

05:40 Apr 24, 2008

it is a witness.
I have used the answer proposed by Eutychus,
thanks to everybody

Attorney DC Bar

04:45 Apr 24, 2008

Here, it would just be 'perjury' without the 'a'. But the real issue is, what's the context of the question? Are they simply talking about lying under oath? In that case, it would be 'knowing that lying under oath can result in criminal penalties.'

Attorney DC Bar

04:40 Apr 24, 2008

To 1045. But it's rare. And several of the examples you cite are lacking the 'a', while others do not check out, like 'underlying a perjury and obstruction of justice' which when I google it, only comes up followed by 'investigation' or 'conviction'.

Jean-Claude Gouin

Canada

20:54 Apr 23, 2008

rufinus: NOT SO! “underlying a perjury and obstruction of justice”, “for a perjury under the bankrupt laws”, “on five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators”, “Clinton could be charged with perjury, obstruction of justice …”, “which could potentially lead to charges of obstruction of justice or fostering a perjury”, “Subornation of perjury committed under G.S. 14 210 …”, “the most expensive case of (a) perjury and (b) attempting to pervert the course of …”

Graham macLachlan

20:46 Apr 23, 2008

is the person a witness or the accused?

Graham macLachlan

20:41 Apr 23, 2008

'perjury' is a noun but uncountable like 'information', the adjectival form is 'perjurious', in Rufinus's examples they are all double nouns like 'train ticket' or football match' or even 'newspaper'

Attorney DC Bar

20:24 Apr 23, 2008

To 1045. Nyet 99. Look at the word following perjury in your 88,800 Ghits and you'll see it's a noun, and the word 'perjury' preceding it is an adjective. A perjury investigation, a perjury charge, a perjury probe, technicality, trap, prosecution etc. etc

Joan Berglund

United States

19:59 Apr 23, 2008

Especially if this is part of the "unsworn statement" you were working on earlier.

Joan Berglund

United States

19:54 Apr 23, 2008

perjury does sound better, but it means specifically to give false evidence under oath, while faux temoingnage just means to give false evidence. Depending on the context, might it be safer to be more literal?

Answers

3 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

a perjury

Explanation:
*

Jean-Claude Gouin
Canada
Local time: 05:31
Native speaker of:

French
PRO pts in category: 30

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Anton Konashenok: and "sanctions pénales" is better translated as "criminal prosecution"

1 min

-> Merci Anton ...

neutral

Attorney DC Bar: but without the 'a'. No such thing as 'a perjury'. A perjured witness. A perjury charge. Knowing that if I lie on the stand, I may be facing jail time.

3 mins

-> Search Google for "a perjury" and you will find that 88 800 people are also wrong ...

agree

Graham macLachlan: "by a witness" apparently

52 mins

-> Merci Graham pour votre appui et pour vos remarques au demandeur ...

neutral

Julie Barber: Agree with Rufinus, I've never heard of 'a perjury' and the number of google ghits is irrelevant - that's just 88K counts of text with one or both words in it \\ de rien ;-))

12 hrs

-> Merci pour votre opinion, Julie ...

7 mins confidence:

Knowing that perjury will expose me to penal sanctions

Explanation:
Ou bien: knowing that perjury will subject me to penal sanctions.

Gad Kohenov
Israel
Local time: 12:31
Works in field
Native speaker of:

French,

Hebrew
PRO pts in category: 72

10 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

false evidence

Explanation:
that supplying false evidence is liable to prosecution

I agree that perjury applies exclusively under oath.

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Note added at 29 mins (2008-04-23 20:17:06 GMT)
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I note that while in the US perjury may apply even when not under oath ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perjury ) this appears not to be the case in France. Perjury is A 434.13 of the Code Pénal "fait sous serment devant toute juridiction ou devant un officier de police judiciaire..." Not sure what plain and simple "faux témoignage" would be. Entrave à la justice perhaps.

David BUICK
Local time: 11:31
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 65

Notes to answerer

Asker: J'ai choisi cette version. celle de Desertfox me parait bien aussi, merci encore

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

false testimony

Bourth (X)
Local time: 11:31
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 254

Grading comment

thanks
claudia

Notes to answerer

Asker: I think you are right, Bourth, in fact I have to keep in mind that legal texts have always latin origins, so the more literal the better thanks again to everybody

10 hrs confidence:

for info

Explanation:
Perjury
The action or an act of solemnly affirming the truth of a statement that one knows to be false, spec. (Law) of wilfully giving false evidence or testimony while under oath. Also, the action or an act of taking an oath which one does not intend to keep; the violation of a promise, vow, or solemn undertaking; a breach of oath.
OED

Graham macLachlan
Local time: 11:31
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 298

1 day 10 hrs confidence:

perjury (by a witness); false evidence (when given by a witness not under oath)

Explanation:
Council of Europe Legal Dictionary

: perjury (by a witness); false evidence (when given by a witness not under oath)

Conor McAuley
France
Local time: 11:31
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 210

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