Lawyers appointed as Queen's Counsel in Northern Ireland will no longer have to promise to serve the queen, the British Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, has confirmed.
The announcement comes after a High Court challenge by two Belfast barristers, Mr Seamus Treacy and Mr Barry MacDonald, who claimed the declaration offended their political sensibilities.
While barristers will still be known as "Queen's Counsel" in Northern Ireland, their new declaration will be:
"I (name) do sincerely promise and declare that I will well and truly serve all whom I may lawfully be called upon to serve in the office of one of her majesty's counsel learned in the law according to the best of my skill and understanding."
In the old declaration, barristers had to promise to serve "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and all whom I may lawfully be called upon to serve". The new declaration was proposed by the Bar Council's Elliott Committee in 1997 but not implemented in Northern Ireland.
Mr Treacy and Mr MacDonald won their case earlier this year on the grounds that Lord Irvine had been under the impression that judges in Northern Ireland had been consulted on the new declaration and had rejected it when in reality no such consultation had taken place.
"When this became clear, the Lord Chancellor reconsidered the issue and recommended to the queen that the declaration should now be changed in line with the 1997 recommendation," a statement by the Northern Ireland Court Service on behalf of Lord Irvine said yesterday.
Mr Treacy and Mr MacDonald's counsel, Mr Michael Lavery QC, had also argued that the declaration was contrary to the Belfast Agreement.
At the time, the case was portrayed as a struggle between the old and new forces in the judiciary.
The two barristers, supported by the Bar Council of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, were taking on the British legal establishment led by the Lord Chancellor.
The two barristers, who in December did not participate in "the call", as the ceremony of being appointed Queen's Counsel is known as, are expected to be appointed shortly, using the new declaration.