An
oath of allegiance is an
oath whereby a
subject or
citizen acknowledges his/her duty of
allegiance and swears loyalty to his/her
monarch or country. In many modern oaths of allegiance, allegiance is sworn to the
Constitution. In particular, in the
United States presidents, judges, and military personnel are under an oath to the
Constitution. In
Canada, oaths are sworn to the
Canadian monarch.
In
feudal times a person would also swear allegiance to his feudal superiors. To this day the oath sworn by freemen of the
City of London contains an oath of obedience to the
Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Oaths of allegiance are commonly required of newly-naturalised citizens (see
Oath of Citizenship), members of the armed forces, and those assuming public (particularly parliamentary and judicial) office. Clergy in the
Church of England are required to take an
Oath of Supremacy acknowledging the authority of the
British monarch.
A typical example of an oath of allegiance is that sworn by Members of
Parliament in the
Netherlands:
I swear (affirm) allegiance to the King, to the Statute for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and to the Constitution. I swear (affirm) that I will faithfully perform the duties my office lays upon me. So help me God almighty! (This I declare and affirm)
In many
Commonwealth realms all that is required is an oath to the monarch, and not the constitution or state. There have been moves in some of the realms to make the oath of citizenship sworn by new citizens refer to the country rather than the monarch. However, the oaths sworn by judges, Members of Parliament, etc., have not been changed. In
New South Wales, there are plans for MPs and Ministers' oaths to be made to "Australia" rather than the Queen. All of these moves have not succeeded as the Queen is the personification of Canadian, British, Australian (or any other Commonwealth realm) State. Allegiance sworn to the monarch is as same as to the country, its constitution, flag, etc. The
New Zealand Oath of Allegiance still refers to the
Queen of New Zealand. The
European Court of Human Rights ruled in 1999 that the oath of allegiance to a reigning monarch is "reasonably viewed as an affirmation of loyalty to the constitutional principles which support... the workings of representative democracy in the respondent State."
See also
