Is there a UK equivalent to the fifth amendment?
10 seconds of research on Wikipedia shows: “The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215. For instance, grand juries and the phrase “due process” both trace their origin to the Magna Carta.” So the principle came from UK law in the first place. Therefore the answer must be yes.
Despite the Magna Carta link that has been shown by other contributers there is nothing enshrined in UK law (Common or Statutory) that give an individual the right to remain silent in the face of questioning by a court, because to answer would incriminate them. In a British court a person can be compelled to answer a question (whether or not it would incriminate them) if they refuse to answer they can be, and more than likely will be, held as being in ‘Contempt of Court’ The person would likely be placed in a Court cell for a period of time until he/she agrees to answer the courts question. Continued failure to answer the question could initially get the person 28 days prison sentence. Just because the Law of a foreign nation has been taken from British Common or Statutory law (as many have) does not necessarily mean that the same applies in UK.
The fifth amendment of the US constitution covers many aspects which are also covered in English law or in UK-wide law. The fifth amendment guarantees a presumption of an entitlement to liberty and the right to own property, and defines the “double jeopardy” rule that makes it impossible to charge someone with a crime for which he has already been acquitted. The UK is said to have no constitution by some, or rather no written constitution. It would be more correct to say it does have a constitution, but some of it is written, some is not, and the bits that are written are not all in a single document recognisable as a constitution. But the set of rules does exist. The most recent documents and laws setting out rights and repsonsibilities of citizens and state in these matters are the European Convention on Human Rights, signed by the UK in 1950, and the Human Rights Act 1998, effectively the Articles of the 1950 Convention written in to UK law. The Articles define a right to have one’s
