INSTITUTION OF THE OATH: A PLURIDIMENSIONAL LEGAL- ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Approached within legal sciences, the oath entity has a pluridimensional institutional character, where various approaches are possible, both theoretical (including normative), and practical. The attempt to perceive the concept of oath in a traditional way, as an entity researchable through the mechanisms applied in the field of legal sciences, which is approaching it into an already dedicated style, is even from the start a challenging one. The oath passed through the history of civilizations that have succeeded over the times without being subjected to radical changes, being present in all historical periods and in all cultures known to researchers intersected in anthropology, ethnology and social psychology, including to lawyers interested in legal anthropology. The oath, from a historical and anthropological perspective, can be identified at two levels: the ordinary oath deprived of any normative and ceremonial-ritual aspects, and the social public oath, with effects over the public and private life, both of the individual who makes the oath, and over the third parties involved.