The Gazette 1973

EDITORIAL

Judicial Changes We congratulate the Hon. William O'Brien Fitzgerald upon his appointment as Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court. Mr. Justice Fitzgerald had been in his day, the leading Common Law advocate at the Bar, and as a Judge, distinguished himself by many trenchant dissenting judgements on a number of issues. We feel sure that the great esteem and affection with which Chief Justice O Dalaigh is regarded by all, will set a distinguished headline which we are confident the new Chief Justice will emulate. We also congratulate Mr. Justice Griffin upon his promotion to the Supreme Court, and Mr. Sean Gannon, Senior Counsel, upon his elevation to the High Court. The result of these appointments will perhaps make the Supreme Court more conservative in its judgments, and seemingly may tend to decide that legislation passed by the Oireachtas since 1938, will generally be deemed constitutionally valid. It would seem that the activist The Referenda Even though half the electorate did not bother to exercise the franchise, the result of the two referendums held on 7th December 1972, were predictable. As all political parties supported the proposition that those who had attained 18 years of age should henceforth exercise their right to vote at parliamentary and pre- sidential elections, it was inevitable that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution Bill, 1972 giving effect to this, should be passed by a four-fifths majority of the voters. In the same way all political parties sup- ported the proposition that mention in Article 44 of the Constitution of "the special position of the Catholic Church as the guardian of the faith professed by the

school, led by many outstanding judgments of Chief Justice O Dalaigh and Mr. Justice Walsh and ably sup- ported by Mr. Justice Budd appears to have ended for the time being. It will be recalled that the activist school purports to give wide liberal construction to Statutes which respects the intention of the parties rather than to stress a narrow literal construction of the words. But we can also espect as always, some outstanding judgments in Common Law and Equity from our Supremfe Court. However, we should also remember the words of Mr. Justice O'Byrne, in deliver- ing the unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court in Sullivan v Robinson —(1954) I.R. 174—namely that —"A Constitution is to be liberally construed, so as to carry into effect the intentions of the people as embodied therein." If the Constitution is to be thus construed, it is submitted that the principle is all the more applicable to Statutes. majority of the citizens", and the listing of other denominations shiuld be deleted, on the ground that neither the Catholic Church nor any other denomina- tion secured any special constitutional guarantees as a result of this mention; this was achieved by four- fifths of the voting majority approving of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution Bill 1972. It is more questionable whether this Constitutional amendment will have any effect upon securing the acquiescence of the Protestants in Northern Ireland—even the most liberal ones. We must doubtless wait for the perfect Constitution which the all-party Committee is supposed to produce. Correction In the Editorial in the December Gazette, in quoting Section 2 of the Offences against the State (Amend- ment) Act 1972, it was stated, that a Guard had a right to demand the person's knowledge of the offence; this is incorrect, as the Section only entitles the Guard to demand from a person an account of his recent movements. The error is regretted.

Statutory Instruments Relating to European Community Law

Several Statutory Instruments have been made which, as from 1 January 1973 introduce changes into Irish Law as a result of Ireland entering the European Com- munity. It is proposed to print the more important ones in full in subsequent issues of the Gazette, and to give short particulars of the others.

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