Talk:Sworn declaration

Army
In the US Army a sworn statement is usually hand written in a blank form called a "Sworn Statement" and at the bottom of the blank page it bears the form number DA 2823. Therefore in the US Army a sworn statement is also known as a 2823. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.147.14.9 (talk • contribs) 13:20, 23 March 2011‎

Isn't this completely backwards?
Isn't the sense of this article completely backwards? Isn't it referring to an Unsworn declaration and not a Sworn declartion? A sworn declaration is sworn before someone (e.g. notary).

Even the cited US law, 18 USC 1746, is titled "Sec. 1746. Unsworn declarations under penalty of perjury" and it indicates that an unsworn declaration (like this article discusses) can be used in place of a sworn declaration. But that doesn't make the words mean the same thing!

Am I confused here? Do different people use these terms in different ways? I don't see any evidence of that? jhawkinson (talk) 05:36, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

You are confused because the law is confused
To the best of my knowledge, the article as written is not backwards - it's simply not a term that is consistent. I'm well aware of the code section you cited, and have used the language often enough, and I actually would probably refer to it informally as a sworn statement, to differentiate it from an affidavit. I have seen a number of agencies that require a "sworn statement" and what they mean is a statement made under penalty of perjury; and in other places, agencies that require a "sworn statement" and require that it be notarized, or given before someone else authorized to take an oath.

Somebody needs to rewrite the article, I think, with a lot more specificity, because the terminology is inconsistent across jurisdictions. Probably the best practice would be to call the notarized version "sworn" and the unnotarized version with clause "statement given under penalty of perjury".

The problem with the term "unsworn statement" is that the term refers to so many different types of oral or written statements that are not subject to perjury, such as what somebody tells a police officer investigating a crime. Apollo (talk) 20:02, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

The title should be changed to "unsworn declaration"
The federal government, most states that allow declarations under penalty of perjury, the ULC and the ABA all call them "unsworn declarations."

Swearing in the legal context means taking an oath. Thus, an affidavit is a sworn declaration (as expressly indicated in the draft uniform law that ULC is working on) because it is executed under oath in front of a notary public. An unsworn declaration is a declaration under penalty of perjury for which no oath is sworn. It really is that simple. --Coolcaesar (talk) 23:44, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Difference with affidavit and similar terms. Article merger proposal.
In practice, depending on the jurisdiction, different terms are used for different proceedings and have different formalities. But, in essence, they are all statements with legal consequences for which the affiant or declarant can be held liable.

Therefore, I would merge this article with Affidavit or another article, which would explain the different types of statements that can be produced, maybe arranged by subject matter, effects, formal requirements and jurisdiction. Mafaldo Felipe (talk) 19:12, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

Assuming we are agreed that pretty much all sources call these "unsworn declarations" and not "sworn declarations", even to the exclusion of declarations not under penalty of perjury, I think what should really happen is that Declaration (law) should be cleaned up and then this should be merged into a section on US unsworn declarations, and Affidavit should explain the situation and link to that section. But actually I remember reading this article years ago and nothing happened since then. Knr5 (talk) 04:07, 11 August 2019 (UTC)


 * I think it should be the other way around: this should be consolidated with affidavit. There is already a section in Declaration (law) explaining what is an unsworn declaration and linking to the affidavit article. --Coolcaesar (talk) 17:43, 27 February 2024 (UTC)