Introduction to the Irish Legal System Irish Court

Introduction to the Irish Legal System

Irish Court System n Irish civil and criminal systems are based on the following structure: • • • n n District (local) Circuit (regional) High and Supreme (National ) Courts No synonymous distinction between federal/local like there is in the US There is a Court of Criminal Appeal and a Special Criminal Court (Terrorism/Organised Crime) and other specialist tribunals

Irish Court System n The President of the High Court is the second most senior judge in the State after the Chief Justice and is also ex officio a Judge of the Supreme Court. • The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is Mrs. Justice Susan Denham • The President of the High Court is Mr. Justice Nicholas Kearns.

Irish Court System n Irish Courts (courts. ie) website has a wealth of useful information including • Court Rules – http: //courts. ie/rules. nsf/Lookup. Page. Link/index? Op en. Document • Practice Directions (which compliment the Rules) – http: //courts. ie/library 3. nsf/Page. Current. We b. Look. Up. Top. Nav/Practice%20 Directions? opendocu ment&l=en • Legal Diary (court calendar) – http: //courts. ie/legaldiary. nsf/Lookup. Page. Link/index ? Open. Document&l=en&p=070

Irish Legal Research

Locating Irish law generally n WHENEVER POSSIBLE, START WITH A SECONDARY SOURCE!!! • Treaties/commentaries available in a number of relevant areas; you will most likely be directed to a relevant treatise but I can give you recommendations as well • Law Review articles, but note that these are much less common in Ireland than in the US – Index to Irish journals articles available here: http: //www. legalperiodicals. org/

Primary sources of Irish Law

Constitutional Law n Irish Constitution = Bunreacht na hÉireann • Available in PDF at – http: //www. taoiseach. gov. ie/upload/publications/2 97. pdf • Enacted in 1937 following the demise of the Free State Constitution of 1922 • Articles 34 - 39 relate to the Courts and the Trial of Offences

Irish Case Law n Unlike in the US, many Irish cases go unreported—i. e. , they are not printed in the main reporter series. Reported cases are chosen editors of the law reports, not by judges, based on their precedential or novel value • Unreported judgments may be available, especially now through the BAILII website, but older ones are much harder to come by and aren’t usually cited

Irish Case Law n n Irish Reports is where most cases get reported and do include some “added value” annotations Other important law reporters you may encounter: • Irish Law Reports Monthly - I. L. R. M • Neutral citations on BAILII – Irish Supreme Court: IESC – Irish High Court: IEHC

Irish Case Law n The main law reports operate a citation system of party names, year, report volume, page. • Ex: Shea v. Shea [2010] 3 I. R. 1 – Shea V. Shea (plaintiff and defendant) – [2010] date of decision (always in brackets) – 3: volume of – I. R. : Irish Reports (main Irish case reporter) – 1: page the case begins on

How to find Irish Case Law n The Irish Digest, currently only available in print or electronically through Justis, digests the main Irish, UK and EU cases • Allows researchers to locate cases by topic, and provides annotations and brief summaries for each case listed, very similar to the Federal Practice Digest you use for US case law research • No such thing as headnotes/Key. Numbers in Irish case law research

Where to find Irish Case Law n Bailii • It’s FREE and FULL-TEXT searchable— always try here first • Be sure to select “Ireland” before searching – http: //www. bailii. org/form/search_cases. html. Co urts. ie n Irish Courts webpage • contains Supreme Court cases from 2001, the Court of Criminal Appeal from 2004 and the High Court from 2004 – http: //www. courts. ie/Judgments. nsf

Example #4 n A real question I was asked in one of my Irish internships: • “Alison, could you please find all cases that involved the judicial review of any case in which an authorised officer was involved” n Just like in US legal research, consider your keywords before you search • “judicial review” and “authorised officer” seem pretty good—NOTE SPELLING

BAILLI is your best (FREE!) alternative to Lexis/Westlaw as you can full-text search Click on “Case Law Search” to make your results more relevant

Search by citation, phrase, party name, or boolean search (Advanced query) Be sure to limit your searches to only Irish cases to ensure relevancy

You can re-sort results to meet your search criteria The Dunnes Stores case —from the Irish Supreme Court (IESC)—is 100% relevant, would definitely be a good case

Parallel citations to official reporters always found here IESC is the neutral cite (Ir. Eland Supreme Court), IR (Irish Reports) is the official cite

Irish Courts. ie judgments page Probably only helpful if you have a citation or you know the date of decision… …although you can try searching party name and limiting search to “Judgments”

Irish Statutory Law n Promulgated by the Oireachtas [Parliament] • Two houses: Upper=Seanad Éireann, Lower=Dáil Éireann • Dáil members elected by the public, Seanad “indirectly elected” • Prime Minster—Taoiseach—appointed from the majority party

Irish Statutory Law n n Ireland (like other Commonwealth jurisdictions) does not codify their legislation; therefore it is important to “note-up” your Act (see subsequent slide) Irish legislation consists of • Statutes (called Acts of the Oireachtas) promulgated after independence in 1922 • Statutory Instruments (resemble US Regulations, promulgated by executive agencies to implement domestic and EU legislation)

Irish Statutory Law n Irish Acts are usually cited by reference to it’s “short title” and the chronological number of the Act in the whichever year it was promulgated • Ex: Employment Equality Act, 1998 (No. 21 of 1998) • Be sure to always include a comma between the title and year

Where to find Irish Statutes n Bailii • http: //www. bailii. org/ie/legis/num_act/ n Irish Statute Book online • http: //www. irishstatutebook. ie/home. html n Irish Current Law Statutes Annotated • In print only, would kind of resemble our USCA or USCS as it contains relevant commentary and legislative history information

If you get too many results, use the “limit results by” facet to reduce entries to only those in the year you are looking for Documents will open in HTML—if you need authentic version, click “View PDF” in the next screen

You can always tell your document in authentic if you see the harp symbol Cite: Aviation Regulation Act, 2001 (No. 1 of 2001)

Irish Statutory Instruments n Secondary legislation issued as orders, rules, and regulations, promulgated by executive agencies under authority delegated to them by the Oireachtas • Statutory instruments = US regulations n Enacted in order to reduce the length and complexity of statutes and increase their flexibility—SIs work WITH statutes, not separate to them

How to find Irish Statutory Instruments n n Available through the same sources listed under Statutory Law section Citation form: • Ex: S. I. No. 274/2005 — European Communities (Compensation and Assistance To Air Passengers) (Denied Boarding, Cancellation Or Long Delay of Flights) Regulations 2005