Category: Open Justice

Better angels, undesirable devils, and the judicial pay amendment

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| Irish Society, judges, Open Justice, The Rule of Law

Why Vote NoEarlier this evening, I did an interview on The Last Word with Matt Cooper on Today fm concerning next Thursday’s referendum to amend the Constitution to add a mechanism to allow judges’ salaries to be reduced. The arguments in favour of the principle are very strong: as a matter of fairness and balance, when other public servants are suffering pay reductions, there is no good reason why judges should not do so too. But that is not the only principle at stake here: the independence of the judiciary is an important aspect of the rule of law. Any implementation of the principle of reduction in judicial salaries in line with other public servants ought to be done without doing violence to the principle of the independence of the judiciary. As I said on The Last Word with Matt Cooper this evening, I do not believe that the proposed amendment manages to maintain this balance.

The amendment proposes that “provision may … made by law to make proportionate reductions to the remuneration of judges” in certain circumstances. Leaving aside those circumstances, this simply allows the reduction of judicial salaries to be effected by legislation, which in the ordinary way is proposed by Government.…

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Judge dread

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| Irish Society, judges, Judicial Appointments, Open Justice, The Rule of Law

Judge Dredd via WikipediaGrowing up, I loved the comic 2000AD, and one of its leading characters was Judge Dredd (pictured left). We never saw underneath his helmet’s visor because – with his catchphrase “I am the law” (echoed by Lord Thurlow LC in The Madness of King George) – he represents the impartiality and facelessness of justice. This is why more traditional representations of lady justice show her wearing a blindfold – as in the statute overlooking upper castle yard in Dublin Castle: the blindfold represents objectivity and impartiality. Hence, under Article 34.5.1 of the Constitution, judges make a declaration that they will execute their functions “without fear or favour, affection or ill-will towards any man”. This judicial impartiality, abjuring both preference and malice, is the cornerstone of the rule of law – it requires and allows both that questions of legal right and liability to be resolved by application of the law and not by the exercise of discretion, and that the laws of the land should apply equally to all: be you never so high, the law is above you. But, as the text of judicial oath expresses, to be able to decide without favour, judges must be free to decide without fear – that is, without the dread in the title to this post.…

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Free speech and the rule of law

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| Freedom of Expression, Open Justice, The Rule of Law

Kenny and ObamaLast week, on 17 March, as the world celebrated Ireland’s national day in honour of St Patrick, the Taoiseach (the Irish Prime Minister) made the annual presentation of a bowl of shamrock to the President of the United States (pictured left). I seem to remember being taught in school that the reason the shamrock is one of Ireland’s unofficial national symbols is because St Patrick explained the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity by reference to the three leaves of the shamrock. I now work in a College named for the same Holy and Undivided Trinity. So, it might come as little surprise that I have recently been thinking about a trinity, though a rather more secular one. What I have in mind is the constitutional trinity on which many modern states are founded: liberal democracy and the rule of law.

All three elements of this trinity are multi-faceted, contestable, and elusive. Moreover, it is possible to conceive of a state which commits to one of the elements of this constitutional trinity, or even two, but – like a three-legged stool – they have become mutually reinforcing in many modern states, so much so that they often fade into one another both in popular conception and in more considered analysis.…

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Justice is open again

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| Open Justice

Front door of Four Courts, by Simon McGarr via FlickrThe photo on the left – ‘Access Denied’ by Simon McGarr – shows the main door of the Four Courts in Dublin, with a sandwich board outside announcing

This entrance is now closed. Please use Morgan Place entrance.

Leaving aside jokes about open justice and access to the courts, I was delighted to note during the week that the board is now gone. According to the Courts Service website:

Four Courts main doors re-opened to the public

The public can once again access the Four Courts via the main entrance on Inns Quay.

The reduced numbers using the Four Courts following the transfer of criminal business to the new Criminal Courts of Justice has made it possible to install a security system at the historic entrance and allow for access by the public.

Brendan Ryan CEO of the Courts Service said that “the main doors once again open for daily business is highly symbolic of the courts being held in public. We are delighted to be in a position to facilitate this and still maintain security and safety for all court users”.

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Televising the Supreme Court

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| Court dress, judges, Law, Open Justice, UK Supreme Court

Image of UK Supreme Court building, via Alex Faundez on flickrNo, not the Irish Supreme Court, but the new UK Supreme Court. There’s quite a lot of coverage in the UK media and blawgopshere today about the new Court at the apex of UK’s judicial system, which opens for business today, on time and on budget, in a refurbished former criminal court, after a difficult gestation. David Pannick argues in the Times today that, however unhappy its origins, the opening of a new Supreme Court is an important commitment to the rule of law. Much of the media interest turns on the fact that the Court will be televised. For example, one of the pieces in the Times is headlined that TV coverage means justice really will be seen to be done:

The reform has taken a number of steps over 20 years: a Bar Council report chaired by Jonathan Caplan, QC, in 1989, the filming of parts of the Shipman inquiry and the Hutton inquiry and the 2004 pilot project in the Court of Appeal all moved the issue of cameras in court forward. … The footage will be filmed and recorded by the court and made available by a feed to broadcasters, … [and] can be used only for news, current affairs and educational and legal training programmes.

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Justice shall be administered in public

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| Irish Society, Media and Communications, Open Justice

The Four Courts, by Darragh Sherwin, via FlickrArticle 34.1 of the Constitution provides that

Justice shall be administered in courts established by law by judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, and, save in such special and limited cases as may be prescribed by law, shall be administered in public.

Giving judgment in the Supreme Court yesterday in a very sad case, Hardiman J began by saying:

On the hearing of this appeal the Court was requested on both sides of the case to take such steps as were possible to prevent the publication of the applicant’s name or at of any detail which might identify him. This was requested on the basis that he was, undisputedly, a person under a disability.

The Court did not consider that it had, in these proceedings, any power to make an order in that regard. However the Court agreed to, and did, request any representatives of the media who might be present not to publish his name and said that it would not itself do so. The Court now repeats this request to any person who may wish to report this case either for the ordinary media or for the purposes of law reporting.

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