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Two puzzles of judicial wagers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2021

Harald Wiese*
Affiliation:
University of Leipzig, Postfach 920, D-04009 Leipzig, Germany Email: wiese@wifa.uni-leipzig.de

Abstract

This paper is about an Old Indian judicial institution called paṇa (“wager”). Within a court proceeding, a judicial wager is a certain sum of money that a conflicting party offers to pay if he ends up losing his case. This paper explains the rationale of judicial wagers by showing that they may signal truthfulness.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Asiatic Society

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