Welcome to part II of Oaths and Affirmations. Our last post was on oaths…today we are going to cover affirmations.

“The Purpose and Procedure for Making Oaths and Affirmations

…continued…

Affirmations

An Affirmation is a verbal, solemn and formal declaration which is made in place of an Oath. A person may choose to make an Affirmation rather than taking an Oath. An Affirmation has the same effect as an Oath and, as with oaths, there are different forms depending on whether the Oath is made in or out of Court.

For a witness appearing in court, the form of Affirmation is as follows:

‘I solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that the evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’

Affirmations made outside a court proceeding will take a slightly different form, as follows:

‘I solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that (followed by the words of the Oath prescribed or allowed by law).’

Other terminology that applies to Oaths and Affirmations include a deponent who is the person in whose name an Affirmation is made. A deponent signs their name beside something called a jurat. A jurat is the certification at the end of an affirmation stating when and where the affirmation was affirmed and by whom. It might look like this:

‘Affirmed at (place where affirmed), this (day affirmed, for example, 2nd) day of (month and year, for example, May 20XX), before me, (insert signature)’

The likelihood is that the current system of swearing Oaths or making Affirmations will remain unchanged for the foreseeable future. It may be questionable if it provides a practical deterrent against people lying. It may also be questionable whether a religious oath should be kept as part of a modern legal system. Our advice is to keep a copy of the Bible handy in legal practice, as you will never know when you might need it!”

There you have it! Oaths and affirmations…It will be interesting to see  if and how oaths and affirmations are changed as our society changes. What do you think?

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