Cite as: 524 U. S. 666 (1998)
Breyer, J., dissenting
purposes. 378 U. S., at 55; 119 F. 3d 122, 129 (1997). And whatever the disagreement about the relative weight to be given each of those purposes or their historical origins, I believe that these purposes argue in favor of the Second Circuit's interpretation. Namely, an interpretation that finds the Fifth Amendment privilege applicable where the threat of a foreign prosecution is "real and substantial," as it is here. See United States of America v. McRae, 3 L. R. Ch., at 85-87 (distinguishing King of the Two Sicilies v. Willcox, 1 Sim. (N. S.) 301, 61 Eng. Rep. 116 (Ch. 1851), on this ground); cf. Queen v. Boyes, 1 B. & S., at 330, 121 Eng. Rep., at 738.
A
This Court has often found, for example, that the privilege recognizes the unseemliness, the insult to human dignity, created when a person must convict himself out of his own mouth. "At its core, the privilege reflects our fierce 'unwillingness to subject those suspected of crime to the cruel [choice] of self-accusation, perjury or contempt.' " Pennsylvania v. Muniz, 496 U. S. 582, 596 (1990) (quoting Doe v. United States, 487 U. S. 201, 212 (1988)); South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U. S. 553, 563 (1983). The privilege can reflect this value, and help protect against this indignity, even if other considerations produce only partial protection—protection that can be overcome by other needs. Cf. Mac-Nair, Early Development of the Privilege Against Self-Incrimination, 10 Oxford J. Legal Studies 66, 70 (1990) (early ecclesiastical procedure recognized privilege until an accusation was made that person had committed an offense); ante, at 692 (observing that the "protection of personal testimonial inviolability" is not a "reliable guid[e]" to the "actual scope of protection under the Clause"). And that value is no less at stake where a foreign, but not a domestic, prosecution is at issue.
This Court has also said that the privilege serves to protect personal privacy, by discouraging prosecution for crimes
713
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