Courts Act 1971

22 Oaths to be taken by Circuit judges and Recorders.E+W

(1)Subject to the following provisions of this section, every Circuit judge and every Recorder shall take the oath of allegiance and the judicial oath; and the M1Promissory Oaths Act 1868 shall have effect as if the officers named in the Second Part of the Schedule to that Act included Circuit judges and Recorders.

(2)Notwithstanding anything in the M2Promissory Oaths Act 1871, a Circuit judge shall take the oaths referred to in subsection (1) above before the [F1Lord Chief Justice], and a Recorder shall take those oaths before a judge of the Court of Appeal or of the High Court or a Circuit judge.

(3)Nothing in this section shall require an oath to be taken by a person who becomes a Circuit judge in accordance with any provision of Part I of Schedule 2 to this Act.

[F2(3A)The Lord Chief Justice may nominate a judicial office holder (as defined in section 109(4) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005) to exercise his functions under subsection (2).]