Should Lying in Political Campaigns Be a Criminal Offence?

Stance

No — lying in political campaigns should not be criminalised. Criminal law is too blunt, too dangerous, and too corrosive of democratic legitimacy. However, electoral integrity requires alternative non-criminal safeguards.

Definitions (stance-aware)

• Lying in political campaigns → deliberate, factual misrepresentation intended to deceive voters (distinguished from hyperbole, satire, or predictions).
• Criminal offence → state coercion with penal consequences (fine, imprisonment), carrying moral stigma beyond civil or regulatory remedies.
• Political campaigns → the constitutional marketplace of ideas, where expression has its highest value (First Amendment doctrine; ECHR Art. 10).

👉 Definition choice already primes stance: if campaign speech is democracy's "core speech," criminalisation must face the highest justificatory threshold.

Assumptions Under Challenge