Sovereign oath for jury removed

Jurors in Northern Ireland will no longer be required to refer to the sovereign when taking the oath, the British lord chancellor…

Jurors in Northern Ireland will no longer be required to refer to the sovereign when taking the oath, the British lord chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, said last night.

"The retention of the reference to the sovereign is not thought to be an essential part of the jury process elsewhere in the UK, and the government does not see that there can be any reasonable objection to aligning Northern Ireland in this particular respect," he told peers.

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