Odger's English Common Law

e indicted for perjury, 1
PERJURY. 197
but is liable on summary conviction
to such, punishment as is provided by section 11 of the
Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, 2 in the case of juvenile
offenders.
The amount of punishment, which the Court can give on a conviction
for perjury, does not depend on the number of " assignments of perjury,''
as they are called, but on the number of oaths taken and broken. For
each such false oath the defendant may be sentenced to seven years' penal
servitude, although only one of his statements made on that oath be proved
false. But if he was sworn on two occasions, and on each occasion wilfully
made the same false statement, he can be sent to penal servitude for fourteen
years.
(ii.) He must have been sworn in a judicial proceeding.
This expression " includes a proceeding before any Court,
tribunal or person having by law power to hear, receive and
examine evidence on oath." 8 Thus if a false statement be
wilfully made in an affidavit or given on commission in
England for the purpose of being used in a judicial pro-
ceeding in any English, colonial or foreign Court, this is
perjury and triable here. 4 A prisoner who pleads guilty and
is subsequently sworn as a witness can be convicted of perjury. 5
If the oath is not administered in a judicial proceeding, the
crime is not perjury, but the misdemeanour of making a false
statement on oath, which is punishable with equal severity
under section 2 of the Perjury Act, 1911. But a false statement
made on oath before a court-martial, 6 or in any arbitration
within the Arbitration Act, 1889, 7 or under the Work-
men's Compensation Act, 1906, 8 is punishable under section 1 )
as these Courts have power to hear evidence on oath.
It was formerly necessary that the Court in which the alleged perjury was
committed should not only have power to administer an oath, but also tha
it should have jurisdiction to try the case then before it. 9 But the Act o
1911 contains no words requiring the latter, and the omission is probably
1 Perjury Act, 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. V. c. 6), *. 16 (2).
2 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49.
8 S. 16 (2).
* S. 1 (4), (5), and s. 8
« M. v. W/ieeler, [1917] 1 K. B. 283.
« It. v. Ileane (1864), 4 B. & S. 947.
? 52 & 53 Vict. c. 49, s. 22.
8 6 Edw. VII. c. 58 ; and see K. v. Crossley, [1909] 1 K. B. 411.
° 3 Co Inst. 166 ; R. v. Dunning (1871), L. K. 1 C. C. Ii. 290.