Guide to
Irish Law
By Dr. Darius Whelan
Published
June 2005
Dr. Darius Whelan is a lecturer in law at University College, Cork, Ireland. He established the Irish Law discussion
list and the Irish Law web site (now at www.irishlaw.org) in 1994. He has
written articles on electronic access to Irish law for the Irish Law Times, the
Bar Review, the Internet Newsletter for Lawyers and
the Irish Times.
Update to an article previously
published on LLRX.com on August 1, 2001
<http://www.llrx.com/features/irish.htm>
Table of Contents
Development of the Irish Legal
System
The Irish Constitution of 1937
Primary Legislation: Acts of the Oireachtas
Secondary Legislation: Statutory
Instruments
Courts and Case Law
Government Websites
Solicitors and Barristers
University Law Departments and
Faculties
Irish Law Websites
Discussion Lists and Electronic
Newsletters
Books
Journals
Development
of the Irish Legal System
Brehon Law was one of the earliest forms of law in Ireland
and there have recently been attempts by the Brehon
Law Project (see www.irishlaw.org/siteinfo/brehonlink.shtml)
to revive interest in the subject. From the late twelfth century, Ireland was
increasingly governed by English common law and by 1800 Ireland was fully
integrated into the United Kingdom by the Act of Union passed in that year. A new Constitution in 1922
meant that twenty six counties became the independent 'Irish Free State.' Six
other counties in Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and
this has, of course, been the subject of great controversy since then. (See
Sarah Carter's Guide to the UK
Legal System for information on Northern Irish law.)
Article
73 of the 1922
Constitution carried all previous UK law forward into Irish law, which explains
why some pre-1922 UK statutes are still in force in Ireland. A similar
provision is found in Article 50 of the 1937 Constitution.
<Table of
Contents>
The Irish Constitution of 1937
The
full text of the Constitution
of 1937 is available at various sites, for example the Department of the Taoiseach (Prime Minister.)
This
Constitution, which remains in force today, renamed the State Ireland (Article
4) and established four main institutions - the President, the Oireachtas (Parliament), the Government and the Courts.
The
President is the directly-elected Head of State but his/her powers are largely
ceremonial. The President normally acts on the advice (instructions) of the
Government. The Oireachtas (Parliament) consists of
two Houses - the directly-elected Dáil and
indirectly-elected Seanad. The Government is the
Executive and consists of the Taoiseach (Prime
Minister) and Ministers. The most significant courts are the High Court and the
Supreme Court. Descriptions of the powers of each of the institutions are
available at the following sites:
The
Constitution also contains a strong set of fundamental rights at Articles
40-44, e.g. rights to equality before the law, freedom of expression, freedom
of religion, education, etc. The courts may issue binding decisions that
legislation is unconstitutional if it breaches these fundamental rights.
The
Constitution has been amended on numerous occasions, and each amendment
requires a referendum. In 1972 the Constitution was amended to recognise
Ireland's membership of the EEC (now the EU) and there have been similar
amendments to recognise major new European Treaties such as the Amsterdam
Treaty of 1997. The Belfast Agreement led to major amendments in 1998. Divorce
was introduced by constitutional amendment in 1995, and abortion has been the
subject of controversial amendments in 1983 and 1992.
<Table of
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Primary
Legislation: Acts of the Oireachtas
Approximately
forty Acts of the Oireachtas are passed each year. These
are available in print from the Government Supplies Agency, which is part of
the Office of Public Works - see contact details on the Irish Legal Publishers page.
In
electronic form there are various sources:
- The British and Irish Legal
Information Institute (Bailii)
Currently this site offers Acts as enacted from 1922 to date. Amendments
are not incorporated into legislation, so great care must be taken in
using this site to search for subsequent amendments of the Acts. Some
pre-1922 legislation which continues to apply in Ireland may be found by going to the Northern Ireland part of the Bailii
site at www.bailii.org/nie/legis/num_act/ . An example is
the Partnership Act 1890.
- The Irish Legal Information Initiative
(Irlii)
This site, managed by Dr John Mee of University College
Cork Law Faculty, complements UCC's contribution
to the Bailii project by providing recent Irish
Acts and some other Acts which may not yet appear on the Bailii site.
- The
Attorney General's Office - www.irishstatutebook.ie
This site provides access to the Acts from 1922
to 2003 and crucially also the Chronological Tables, which list amendments
up to 2003. It is also possible to a certain extent to see whether a
particular section of an Act is actually in force by checking the
Commencement Orders section of the Chronological Tables. The material on
this site may also be purchased in CD-ROM format from the Government
Supplies Agency.
- The Houses of the Oireachtas
Here you will find all Acts passed from 1997 to date, as well as all Bills
published from 1997 to date. The site lists legislative history of Bills
to date, including links to all relevant Parliamentary debates.
- Some
additional information may be found at www.feargalquinn.ie, UCC Law Library
and on a fee-paying basis at www.firstlaw.ie
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Secondary
Legislation: Statutory Instruments
Most
subordinate legislation is made by Government Ministers under powers conferred
on them by Acts. Approximately 500 pieces of subordinate legislation are passed
per year. Electronic access is provided on the Irish Statute Book site (see above)
and at the following sites:
- The British and Irish Legal
Information Institute (Bailii)
Contains subordinate legislation passed from 1922 to 1998. There is no
list of amendments.
- The
Attorney General's Office - www.irishstatutebook.ie
Offers Subordinate Legislation from 1922 to 2003.
There is no easy way to find out whether a piece of subordinate
legislation is still in force or has been amended. Some assistance is
provided in print form by Richard F. Humphreys' Index to Irish Statutory
Instruments (3 volumes, 1988)
- Selected Statutory
Instruments 2002 to date are available on the Irish Legal Information
Initiative (Irlii) website.
- A list
of subordinate legislation passed from 1997 to date is kept online at UCC Law Library
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Courts and Case law
The
main courts website is at www.courts.ie and
contains a particularly useful Frequently Asked Questions section.
The
principal printed series of reports are the Irish Reports and Irish Law Reports
Monthly, cited as 'IR' and 'ILRM' respectively. Many cases remain unreported
and are kept in the libraries of the main Universities or professional bodies.
For electronic access to reported and unreported cases, see the following:
- British and Irish Legal
Information Institute (Bailii)
The most significant data here are in the Supreme Court ('IESC') and High
Court ('IEHC') directories. The
database is not comprehensive so it is important to consult other
sources. The majority of cases date from 1997 (High Court) and 1998
(Supreme Court.)
Bailii also provides access to decisions of the
Competition Authority ('IECA') and Information Commissioner ('IEIC').
In addition, Bailii also introduced
vendor-neutral citations for the first time in Irish case-law, e.g. a
Supreme Court case on Bailii may be cited as [2000]
IESC 12.
- Irish Legal Information Initiative (Irlii)
This site provides a database of 'leading Irish cases' classified by
subject, e.g. constitutional law cases include Attorney General v X
(1992). These cases are also available on the Bailii
site. Note also the Irlii index of cases
at www.index.irlii.org.
- Courts Service
Judgments Database
Recent cases from the Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeal
- FirstLaw
Fee-paying service which offers access to judgments on an ongoing basis. A
ten-day trial is available.
- LexisNexis
The 'Ireland' library contains a large number
of reported and unreported cases.
- Westlaw.ie
Covers irish Law
Reports Monthly, Employment Law Reports, Irish Current Law Statutes
Annotated, and various other material.
- Titles
of Irish unreported judgments from 1993 to date are available on-line from
UCC Library at http://booleweb.ucc.ie/collections/lawdocs/unrepjud.htm.
- The
electronic Irish Reports and Irish Digests are available either by web
access or on CD-ROM from Justis - see www.justis.com/titles/irish_reports.html.
- European
case-law is available in various formats - see for example the European
links at www.irishlaw.org/cases/.
<Table of
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Government Websites
The
main Irish government website is at www.gov.ie
and contains information from every Government department and most state
bodies. The parts of most legal relevance, which have not been mentioned above,
include:
Note also the following portal sites, which include
summaries of relevant laws:
<Table of Contents>
Solicitors and Barristers
Solicitors
are educated and regulated by the Law
Society. Many solicitors' firms have websites which are listed at www.irishlaw.org/practitioners/.
Barristers
are educated by the King's Inns and
regulated by the Bar Council / Law Library.
Only a few barristers have websites - see for example Kieron
Wood's at welcome.to/barrister
<Table of
Contents>
University
Law Departments and Faculties
The
main University Law Departments and Faculties have websites listing staff interests,
courses available, etc. Here they are in alphabetical order:
<Table of
Contents>
Irish Law Websites
The
major portal site, managed by the author, is the Irish Law Site hosted by
University College Cork Law Faculty at www.irishlaw.org
. This site has been in existence since 1994 and contains links to all the
major resources concerning Irish law, many of which have been mentioned above.
It also includes a link to the searchable archive of IrishLaw
discussion-list messages and the facility to join a low-traffic 'Updates' list
by filling in one's name and e-mail address on the home page. The long
URL for the site is www.ucc.ie/law/irishlaw/.
The
site includes a list of subject
pages on areas such as Commercial Law, Family Law, Property Law and Tort.
Other
important Irish law websites include the following:
Other
Online Guides to Irish Law:
<Table of
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Discussion
Lists and Electronic Newsletters
<Table of
Contents>
Books
It
is difficult to select the most important books on Irish law, and those with a
specific interest in a particular area would be well advised to search the online
catalogues of major Irish universities (e.g.
Trinity College Dublin's catalogue) for comprehensive listings. What
follows is a list of some of the more significant titles since 1992. See also
the subject law pages
on the Irish law site, e.g. Commercial Law,
Criminal Law,
etc.
General Books
- Raymond Byrne and Paul McCutcheon, The Irish Legal System, 4th ed., Butterworths,
Dublin, 2001.
- Henry Murdoch, A
Dictionary of Irish Law, 3rd ed., Topaz Publications, Dublin, 2000.
- Thomas O'Malley, Sources of Law: An
Introduction to Legal Research and Writing, 2nd ed., Round Hall, Dublin,
2001.
- Raymond Byrne and William Binchy,
Annual Reviews of Irish Law, Round Hall, Dublin, 1987 to date.
- Brian Doolan, Principles
of Irish Law, 6th ed., Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 2003.
Administrative Law
- Gerard Hogan and David Gwynn
Morgan, Administrative Law in Ireland, 3rd ed., Round Hall, Dublin, 1998.
Banking Law
- Mary Donnelly, The
Law of Banks and Credit Institutions, Round Hall, Dublin, 1999.
- William Johnston, Banking and Security Law in
Ireland, Butterworths, Dublin, 1998.
Commercial Law
- Fidelma White, Commercial Law, Thomson Round Hall, Dublin, 2003.
- Michael Forde,
Commercial Law, 2nd Edition, Butterworths,
Dublin, 1997.
Company Law
- Thomas Courtney, Law of Private Companies, 2nd
ed., Butterworths, Dublin, 2002, with
contribution from Brian Hutchinson.
- Michael Forde,
Company Law, 3rd ed., Round Hall Sweet and Maxwell, 1999.
- Ronan Keane, Company Law, 3rd ed., Butterworths, Dublin, 2000.
Constitutional Law
- Gerard Hogan & Gerry Whyte,
Kelly's Irish Constitution, 4th ed., Butterworths,
Dublin, 2003.
- Michael Forde,
Constitutional Law, 2nd ed., FirstLaw, Dublin,
2004.
- James P. Casey, Constitutional Law in Ireland , 3rd ed., Round Hall, Dublin, 2000.
Contract Law
- Robert Clark, Contract Law, 5th ed., Thomson
Round, Dublin, 2004.
- Raymond Friel, Law
of Contract, 2nd ed., Round Hall, Dublin, 2000.
Criminal Law
- Peter Charleton,
Paul McDermott and Marguerite Bolger, Criminal Law Butterworths,
Dublin, 1999.
- Conor Hanly, An
Introduction to Irish Criminal Law Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1999.
Employment Law / Labour Law
- Frances Meenan,
Working within the Law, 2nd ed. Oak Tree Press, Dublin, 1999.
- Michael Forde,
Employment Law, 2nd ed., Round Hall, Dublin, 2001.
Environmental Law
- Yvonne Scannell,
Environmental and Planning Law, Round Hall, Dublin, 1995. (2nd ed. due
2005)
Equity and Trusts
- Hilary Delany,
Equity and the Law of Trusts in Ireland, 3rd ed., Thomson Round Hall,
Dublin, 2003.
Evidence
- Caroline Fennell, Law of Evidence in Ireland,
2nd ed., LexisNexis, Dublin, 2003.
Family Law
- Alan Shatter, Shatter's
Family Law, 4th ed., Butterworths, Dublin, 1997.
- Jim Nestor, An
Introduction to Irish Family Law, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, 2000.
Human Rights
- Ursula Kilkelly
(ed.), The ECHR and Irish Law, Jordan Publishing,
Bristol, 2004.
Information Technology Law
- Denis Kelleher and Karen Murray, Information
Technology Law in Ireland, Butterworths, Dublin,
1997.
Intellectual Property Law
- Robert Clark, Irish Copyright and Design Law, Butterworths, Dublin, 2001.
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