To What Extent Does the Privilege against Self-Incrimination Protect a Witness against Forced Production of Documents

This comment is intended to be a companion piece to the Comment in Vanderbilt Law Review, Vol. I, No. 2, which discusses self-incrimination by means of physical disclosures. The preceding Comment gave a brief account of the privilege and pointed out that the Constitutions of the Federal Government and forty-six states have incorporated the common law privilege against self-incrimination. The two exceptions among the states, Iowa and New Jersey, have accepted the privilege, either by incorporation into their common law by judicial interpretation, or by statute. It is the purpose of this comment to discuss the possibility of the invocation of the privilege against self-incrimination by an individual who has been ordered by regular legal process to produce books, papers and other documents.