The Gazette 1981

SEPTEMBER 1981

GAZETTE

An enlightened c ommu n i c a t i on service — or Public Relations service — to prevent the profession being constantly misrepresented to the general public, is a fundamental necessity for every Bar Association". These observations by Mr. John Carrigan, s o m e t i me President of this Society, have even more force to-day than they had in 1 9 6 8. If our profession were to promote legislation of the kind that I have suggested, it would be one step in the direction of securing a better image for the profession in the e y es of the public. S o also, in very ma ny other fields, I ask has our profession no view on such matters as abortion, euthanasia, access to the Courts, the legal education of the non-lawyer? The field is great; the time is running out. Rather than analysing the many petty disputes that arise between members of our Profession — Solicitors and Barristers — let us c omb i ne looking at the future of our profession with looking at the future of our country. The Law may be an ever-inadequate human endeavour to divide justice, which is divine, into compartments, but let us not fail in contributing to the effort that should be made to afford a reasonable degree of justice for all.D INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND BLACKHALL PLACE, DUBLIN ". VACANCIES FOR ASSISTANT EXAMINERS Final Examination — First Part Applications are invited from practising lawyers for the posts of Assistant Examiners for the Society's Final Examination — First Part in the following subjects: Tort Company Law Contract Constitutional Law Real Property Criminal Law Particulars of the posts are available from the undersigned to whom applications (with curriculum vitae in each case) should be furnished not later than 9th October, 1981. Professor Richard Woulfe, Director of Education.

achievements will speed up to a frightening degree. It is not long since a computer filled a room; now there arc computers that would barely fill one's hand. Data Processing, Word Processing, all manner of computer sciences, are expanding at a hectic rate. Wc cannot allow ourselves to fall behind in matching the achievements of c omme r ce in meeting the d emands that these achievements create. Justice delayed is justice denied, but a rush to Judgment is not the solution for weighty problems. The ready reference programme from the computer cannot supplant analysis by intellect — no sausage machine can reproduce refinements of flavour; and the need for dialectic in debate — profundity in argument and in submission will remain. A more frightening aspect of our age, not for the I gal profession alone, but for the public at large, is the growth of computerisation, the end result of which, within a relatively short time must be, in the absence of controlling and enforced legislation, the laying of the foundation of a Police State — a computerised filing system covering every citizen. This vision of 1 9 84 is far from unreal. Ma ny financial institutions — Banks. Insurance Comp a n i e s, Hire Purchase Comp a n i e s, are computerised. In effect, this means that every one of us with a Bank Ac c o u n t, an Insurance Policy, a Mortgage from a Building Society, an arrangement with a Hire Purchase C omp a n y, the recipient of Social Welfare benefits, the holder of Credit Cards, the user of Credit Ac c o un t s, is a computerised individual. The day must c ome when all of these several sources of information, at present in relatively private hands, can b e c ome the subject of one great computer and the life of every citizen will, by throwing a switch, b e c ome an open print out, available at the behest of whoever has control. The consequences are o b v i o us — control of this information in anyone's hands is a terrifying prospect, in which bugging devices and concealed microphones would b e c ome irrelevant. The Omniscient State One cannot legitimately prevent the State from acquiring a modicum of knowledge about every citizen — the danger lies in the transfer of information from a variety of sources to one central area — the correlation of all of these sources together — and the consequent removal of all privacy from the private citizen. We must seek to provide legal safeguards in a computerised society with consequent control of a c c e ss to information. There is, in Ireland, no statutory restriction on the passing of information. To call the Constitution in aid would be a most c omp l ex and uncertain procedure il requires legislation and is a field in which oui profession could and, I believe, should lake a stand and make representation to the Law Re f o rm Comm i s s i o n, to which body the contribution of this branch of our profession has not been overwhelming! This would be but one step in promoting the very laudable objective propounded by the Secretary of the Tipperary Sessional Bar Association, as cited in the Report of the late Sir T h omas Lund to the International Bar Association Con f e r e n ce in Dublin, in 1968:

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