The Gazette 1996

GAZETTE

JULY 1996

B O O K

R E V I E W S

principles of media rights. Some pages have been written with the knowledge that some readers will have little legal training and there issues are addressed which solicitors will have little interest in. This comment does not take away from the overall value of the book to practitioners. By this publication the author has provided a guide and references towards current legislation, case law and towards published articles and books on media matters. In any instance a practitioner may wish to examine source material and this book is a useful investment for persons wishing to find their way towards such material. I have no doubt that in subsequent editions this work will be expanded on but as a first edition it usefully fills a gap in a practitioners library. by Hilary Delany. Published by Roundhall Sweet &Maxwell. 577 pp, paperback £39.95, hardback £55. In Mr. Justice Keane's work on this subject, the law is stated as of 1 September, 1987. There is therefore an interval of some nine years between the two books. Any such interval will witness considerable changes in the law but the nine year period which has just elapsed has been especially fruitful, at least where equity is concerned. Any decade in which Owens v Greene ([1932] IR225) was overturned cannot be regarded as uneventful. At the time of publication of this work, judgment had been reserved by the Supreme Court in the appeal against O'Hanlon J's decision . . . which followed Owens v Greene ... in Lynch v Burke. ([1990] l IR Eugene Murphy Equity and the Law of Trusts in Ireland

l) However, in the book the subject matter of the case is discussed thoroughly and the actual result of the appeal is advocated quite strongly so our loss from not having the appeal dealt with has been reduced to the minimum. To enable potential readers to appreciate therich fare of which Delany is the residuary legatee, the reviewer may, perhaps, be permitted a brief glance at some of the recent landmark decisions in equity and trusts. First of all, there is Sen v Headley ([1991] Ch 425) which made it clear that a donatio mortis causa of land by delivery of title deeds is feasible. Then, there is the judgment of Keane J in Re Worth Library ([1994] l ILRM 161) which has, as the author says, "provided a detailed and most useful overview of the general principles relating to charitable trusts and the exercise of cy- pres jurisdiction." A nervous trustee may well feel apprehensive on learning from Stacey v Branch ([1995] 2 ILRM 136) that even the power to deal with trust property as the trustee "in his absolute discretion shall thinkfit" would not necessarily relieve a trustee fromwhat might be regarded as a breach of his duty to take reasonable care. However, Murphy J was in fact satisfied that the defendant trustee's employment of a caretaker for the property, instead of letting it, over a period of 14 years, was a bona fide exercise of his discretion. Much of the case-law which has punctuated, both here and abroad, the development of the Mareva injunction . .. the only one of the law's two "nuclear" weapons to be reflected in our law reports . . . has emerged since Keane wasfirst published and is recorded by Delany. Whilst in the area of mutual wills, Re Dale ([1993] 3 WLR 652) confirms that a constructive trust can arise even where the survivor does not take any benefit from the will of the first testator to die. In Prendeville v Prendeville, (H .C., unrep., 5 Dec. 1990) a decision which the

A Textbook on Media Law By Marie McGonagle, Gill & Macmillan; 314pp; paperback; £30.00. The author comments that the publication is not a traditional law book because the topic is not a traditional law subject. The late Dr. John M. Kelly may have had the same reservations when his book on Constitutional Law was published in 1961. Media law is here to stay and it encompasses more than the law of defamation and more than the various matters covered by this book. For a practitioner wishing to have a broader perspective on media law (than that given by the law of defamation) the £30.00 called for to purchase this book is a useful investment. Maire McGonagle unites many strands of law not already included in one publication under the title "media law". Clients needs dictate that lawyers and the judiciary must fill in the gaps left between the Constitution and legislation and this book draws together such issues in relation to a most dynamic industry. The book is laid out with 288 pages of text, 21 pages of indices and 22 pages of tables of relevant case law and Irish/UK statutes (to include the Rules of Court and the Constitution). Heavy tomes have already been published on the law of defamation and related subjects nonetheless 68 pages of this book are allocated to that topic. For practitioners who already have the heavy tomes on defamation their interest in this book will be attracted by chapters dealings with privacy, the media and the courts/parliament and local government, issues of public order and morality, the authority of the State, media structures and broadcasting complaints procedures. The first three chapters deal with historical developments and general

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