cearta.ie – Page 130 – the Irish for rights

Mandatory retirement, again

6 March, 200926 March, 2009

In my last post, I mentioned that the question of the compatibility of mandatory retirement ages with EU law was pending before the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The Court has now handed down its decision, upholding the principle of mandatory retirement ages, but requiring them to be justified on a high standard of proof.

The case, C-388/07 R (on the application of The Incorporated Trustees of the National Council on Ageing (Age Concern England)) v Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, was a reference from the High Court (Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court), for a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of Council Directive 2000/78/EC (pdf) of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (OJ 2000 L 303, p16), which had been transposed in the UK by the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (SI No 1031 of 2006). The Directive and the Regulations provided for a general principle of non-discrimination on the grounds of age. However, they allowed for exceptions that are objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate aim, provided that the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary (see, eg, Article 6(1) of the Directive).…

Is compulsory judicial retirement constitutional? or judicious?

3 March, 200926 March, 2009

| 8 Comments

| judges, Law

The issue of compulsory retirement is not an uncommon one, but it arises today in an uncommon context. From today’s Times Online,

Judges take on Ministry of Justice over age discrimination

Two judges this week have launched a discrimination claim against the Ministry of Justice over being forced to retire at 70. … The claim is only the latest of several challenges by judges or lawyers over compulsory retirement. …

An earlier Times Online article reported that senior UK judges are pressing for a change in the law to allow the most senior members of their profession to remain in their posts beyond the age of 70.

This all recalls for me the words of Lord Bridge of Harwich in Ruxley Electronics & Construction Ltd v Forsyth [1996] AC 344, [1995] UKHL 8 (29 June 1995):

My Lords, since the populist image of the geriatric judge, out of touch with the real world, is now reflected in the statutory presumption of judicial incompetence at the age of 75, this is the last time I shall speak judicially in your Lordships’ House. I am happy that the occasion is one when I can agree with your Lordships still in the prime of judicial life who demonstrate so convincingly that common sense and the common law here go hand in hand.

…

Is Ireland corrupt?

2 March, 20093 March, 2009

| 4 Comments

| Irish Society

Already previewed on this blog, a report today (cover left) from Transparency International (Press Release here) raises the spectre (and not for the first time) of corruption at the heart of Irish political life. In particular, the National Integrity System Country Study. Ireland 2009 says that whilst there is little evidence of grand corruption at present, and the scale of petty corruption is very low, the political culture of personal relationships, patronage, favours, and donations, compounded by a lack of transparency in political funding and lobbying, gives rise to high levels of what the report characterises as “legal corruption”. As Vincent Browne once put it: our political system is built around private gain.

For the future, therefore, the report acknowledges:

Ireland already has a sound legals and institutional framework upon which future progress can be made. For this to happen, existing institutions will have to be adequately resourced, and laws adequately enforced. Just as importantly, a shift in political will and general attitudes
to corruption and abuse of power will be needed.

In particular, the day after a limited form of whistleblower protection came into effect in the health service, the report recommends the introduction of comprehensive whistleblower protection across both the public and the private sectors, the strengthening of Freedom of Information legislation (including the reduction of application fees), and significant strengthening of the rules relating to political funding (including the publication of detailed audited accounts by political parties) and lobbying (including a public register of lobbyists).…

Suicide in the media

1 March, 20091 March, 2009

| No Comments

| General, Press Council

From today’s Observer, an article by Carole Cadwalladr that makes the case for the ethical reporting of suicide:

How Bridgend was damned by distortion

… the Bridgend suicides are a case unto themselves. I ask Dr Lars Johansson of Umeå University, Sweden, who has published several papers on teenage suicide, about other, larger clusters, but there hasn’t ever been one. It is the largest teen suicide cluster of modern times, he says, and there’s never been a cluster reported as sensationally, as comprehensively, as widely, or for as long. … But now that the media furore has died down, so have the deaths. Is that a coincidence? And is it just another coincidence that the highest incidence of deaths occurred when the media reporting of the phenomenon was at its height?

The available academic research on the subject of media and suicide is damning: that there is a clear, documented link. And that our thirst for the story looks, from this distance, like a sort of bloodlust. … ever since the first modern research into media and suicide was undertaken in 1974 by the sociologist David Phillips, it’s been known that mass media can be a factor in contagion.

…

I cannot live without books

1 March, 20091 March, 2009

| 2 Comments

| Libraries

The title of this post is a famous quotation from Thomas Jefferson (left); and it’s apt for the coming week (here‘s an equivalent week earlier in the life of this blog).

The week of 2 March to 8 March is Library Ireland Week (though Cork libraries are also running a year-long focus on reading: the Year of the Constant Reader). Then, next Thursday, 5 March, is World Book Day, with lots of events in Ireland for the day. And for the weekend, from Friday 7 March until Sunday 9 March, book-lovers have a choice between the Dublin Book Festival – with strong participation from Children’s Books Ireland – and the Ennis Book Club Festival.

Chomh maith, beidh Seachtain na Gaeilge ar siúl idir an 2ú Márta agus an 17ú Márta; agus cé go mbeidh se ar siúl ar feadh níos mó ná coicís, beidh a lán le deánamh!…

Al-eee-bee, al-eee-ass, all-egged

28 February, 200926 February, 2009

| No Comments

| General

From Bloody Relations, a wickedly funny courtroom sketch:

Hell hath no furry

…

Interpreting Contracts

27 February, 200927 May, 2009

| 1 Comment

| Contract, Irish Law

Photo from Killarney Golf & Fishing Club

In National Tourism Development Authority v Coughlan [2009] IEHC 53 (17 February 2009) Charlton J had little difficulty in concluding that the activities of a golf club were matters of sport and recreation and therefore had insufficient public benefit to amount to a charitable trust. Socially fascinating though the issue is, the judgment is also interesting for Charlton J’s various legal musings, including his comments on the interpretation and construction of private legal documents, including contracts and trust deeds.

The starting point for the interpretation of contracts is now the speech of Lord Hoffmann in Investors Compensation Scheme v West Bromwich Building Society [1998] 1 WLR 896, [1997] UKHL 28 (19 June 1997), which has commended itself to the House of Lords, the Privy Council, the High Court of Australia, the Irish High Court (BNY Trust v Treasury Holdings [2007] IEHC 271 [despite the citation, it is not available online, so far as I can find]; Ryanair Ltd v An Bord Pleanala [2008] IEHC 1 (11 January 2008); Connolly v An Bord Pleanála [2008] IEHC 224 (08 July 2008)) and the Irish Supreme Court (Analog Devices v Zurich Insurance Company [2005] IESC 12 (16 March 2005); Emo Oil Limited v Sun Alliance & London Insurance Company [2009] IESC 2 (22 January 2009)).…

Back to the future of law reviews?

26 February, 20098 August, 2009

| 1 Comment

| General, Legal Journals and Law Reviews, open access

There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing. One is its style. The other is its content.

Fred Rodell “Goodbye to Law Reviews” 23 Virginia Law Review 38 (1936) at 38.

Leaving aside their citation styles, there may be a third problem with law reviews: their paper format. The Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship, calling for the wholesalde abandonment of paper in favour of exclusively online publication, has been causing a small stir of late:

Objective: The undersigned believe that it will benefit legal education and improve the dissemination of legal scholarly information if law schools commit to making the legal scholarship they publish available in stable, open, digital formats in place of print. To accomplish this end, law schools should commit to making agreed-upon stable, open, digital formats, rather than print, the preferable formats for legal scholarship. If stable, open, digital formats are available, law schools should stop publishing law journals in print and law libraries should stop acquiring print law journals. ….