Historic! Cambridge river rights campaigner takes jury oath on cupful of river water (not from the Cam)

Environmental campaigner Paul Powlesland, who has spoken for Friends of the River Cam and appears in the film Pure Clean Water, has made judicial history by taking a jury service oath on a cupful of water from his local river in north-east London.

Mr Powlesland, a barrister who has acted for climate protesters, said: “I swear by the River Roding, from her source in Molehill Green to her confluence with the Thames, that I will faithfully try the defendant and give a true verdict according to the evidence.”

When he visited Cambridge in 2021, Mr Powlesland made a very positive impression, said Tony Booth, one of the founders of Friends of the River Cam.

“We had invited Paul to give a talk about river and nature rights for Friends of the River Cam early in 2021,” said Prof Booth, “because [partner] Sue [Buckingham] and I had both been interested in ideas of nature rights for more than a decade and he was beginning to talk about the legal rights of nature. We thought this would help to promote and develop Friends of the Cam.

“We then invited him to be part of the first UK declaration of river rights by the Cam on 21 June, 2021, where he spoke.”

The occasion also impressed Tony Eva, the writer and producer of Pure Clean Water, a film about the looming water crisis in Cambridge which went on general release earlier this year.

“Paul was very helpful in talking about his memories of Hobson's Conduit and of water more generally when we interviewed him in June 2021,” said Mr Eva. “That was at the declaring the Rights of the River Cam event.

“Paul lives on a houseboat on the River Roding. He pops up whenever nature and legal actions intersect – he co-founded ‘Lawyers for Nature’. He’s a hugely inspirational figure to environmentalists in the UK and overseas.”

So would they swear an oath on the water from the River Cam?

The issue “raises the significance of having a deep respect for nature if life on earth is to survive,” said Prof Booth, adding: “However we swear our oaths, it is important that we go on to tell the whole truth.

“The legal system is being severely challenged by the legal rulings to prevent defendants who had been engaged in climate protests to speak about the motivation for their actions in the defence of nature. We are seeing how this is preventing juries from knowing that they can come to a verdict based on their consciences, whatever the directions they are given by the judge.”

Mr Eva replied: “Will swearing an oath using water catch on? Possibly, though I can’t see it becoming mainstream. The River Cam is a very important part of my life – I’ve studied it, swum in it, punted on it, walked alongside it, watched fish die in it and filmed it. But I wouldn’t say that the River Cam is sacred to me.

“If called up for jury service, I would opt myself for a simple affirmation rather than swearing an oath on any purportedly sacred object.

“Paul is quoted as saying ‘To take water into court you have to sip it to make sure it’s not a bad substance’. I’d recommend that people avoid drinking water from the River Cam due to the known high levels of harmful bacteria in our watercourse.”

Terry Macalister, one of the founders of Friends of the Cam, said: “It was wonderful to see Paul Powlesland swear on river water as a sacred vow in court.

“This underlined the growing acceptance about the importance of nature while hopefully raising the need for harsher penalties against those – like water companies – who pollute and despoil it.”