Abjuration - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition abjuration

Definition :

Abjuration, means a renouncing by oath, Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 5.

Abjuration [fr. abjuro, Lat.], a forswearing or renouncing by oath. To abjure is to retract, recant or abnegate a position on oath. 'Abjuration of the realm,' in the old law, signified an oath taken by a person accused of crime who had claimed sanctuary (see that tile) to forsake the realm for ever. It was abolished by 12 Jac. 1, c. 28.

The oath of abjuration (introduced by 13 Wm. 3, c. 16, and altered by 6 Geo. 3, c. 53) had to be taken by every person entering upon any public office or trust. By this he renounced the Pretender (the son of James II.) and recognized the right of Her Majesty, under the Act of Settlement (q.v.), engaging to support her, and promising to disclose all treasons and traitorous conspiracies against her, Staunforde Pl. C. b. 2, c. 40. By 21 & 22 Vict. C. 48, one form of oath was substituted for the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration. For this form another was substituted by Act 30 & 31 Vict. C. 75, s. 5. This has in its turn been superseded by the (English) Promissory Oaths Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 72), by which a new form of the oath of allegiance is provided numerous obsolete Acts as to oaths being repealed by the (English) Promissory Oaths Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 48).