As a barrister at Garden Court Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, I see people swearing the usual oaths all the time. “I swear by Almighty God” if you are religious, “I solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm” if you’re not.
But when it came to my own time to finally do jury service, I realised this usual courtroom practice – representing a powerful promise to do something – didn’t mean that much to me. So I asked the judge if I could do something a little different – swear an oath on the river Roding, the third biggest river in London, where I live on my houseboat.
It wasn’t a rejection of the religious oath or the secular affirmation. Or, because I find it objectionable to swear on the Bible. It was more about finding an oath that was genuinely meaningful for me.