The Gazette 1940-44

June. 1943]

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland

11

public generally and that is the question of the setting up by the Legislature of a Com mission or Commissions to enquire into and report on the necessity for reform of our laws. The State took over the existing laws when it was set up in 1923 by the Adaptation of En actments Act. Since then there has been some small adjustments of the law but there has been no general consideration or any attempt made for a complete reform of laws to bring them up to date. I trust that this matter will receive early consideration. It is only necessary to refer to the Company Laws and to the Bankruptcy Laws. We are also faced with the feudal system of primogeniture which affects all real property, except that covered by the Local Registration of Title Act. It is time the question of the unjust Will by which a Testator may leave all his property away from his wife and family was dealt with. The passing of property in intestacy also requires consideration, and the widow's right to £500 when her husband dies intestate and without issue requires, under present circumstances, to be drastically altered. This is only a very brief resume, as the question of the reform of existing laws requires very careful and exhaustive exam ination. I desire to stress the magnificent work carried out by our Benevolent Association and to express surprise that every Solicitor is not a member of this Association. No one knows the day or hour that he may be called from this world and no one of us can say that we will leave those near and dear to us in a position of affluence. The work of this Association is a great charitable work and one to which every Solicitor should give every possible assistance and financial aid. There is just one other matter to which I feel I should refer and that is the educa tional standard in recent years of those students who seek admission to our profes sion. Our Council and our Court of Examin ers have viewed with considerable alarm the lack of the former high standard of proficiency in the examinations, especially in the Final Examination. I, of course, only refer to the lack of honour passes in the past number of years. I am afraid that a considerable amount of this lack of honours has been due to the great strain imposed upon the students in passing their Final Irish Examination the same year as they present themselves for their Final Law Examination. When the

Legal Practitioners' (Qualification) Act, 1929, was passed }?our Council undertook to the Department of Justice that they would carry out that act to the letter and in the spirit and they have done so. The standard re quired for the Final Irish Examination is a very high standard and must have mitigated against the intensive study required to obtain honours at our Final Law Examination. There is no person keener on the development and restoration of our national language than I am and I believe that we are justified in recommending to the Department of Justice that our students should be permitted to present themselves for their Final Irish Examination in the second last year of their studies. I also am of opinion that the whole educational system of our apprentices should be enquired into and amended »to meet modern conditions. With this in view your Council has authorised the setting up of a Special Committee to consider this matter and to report in due course. We hope that as a result of the work of this Special Com mittee our students will be better able to deal with the very many "difficult problems that arise under modern conditions. At present there are different problems to face than fifty or even twenty-five years ago. It is customary to review the work of the Council at this half-yearly meeting. During the past six months your Council and the various Committees have been engaged in the ordinary work of the Society, and from time to time there have appeared in the GAZETTE reports of the work of the Council. You will recollect our Past-President referring to the many Committees of the Council necessitated by the fact that there were in existence eight different Committees, in addition to the Court of Examiners and the Statutory Committee. For various reasons some of these eight Committees were out of date and gave unnecessary work both to the members of the Council and to the staff. Accordingly a Committee was set up to consider the Bye-Laws of the Council, and as a result new Bye-Laws were drafted and approved by the Council and the number of Committees were reduced to four as follows :- (1) Legislation and Privileges. (2) Court and Offices. (3) House, Library and Finance. (4) Gazette. There is, of course, in addition, the Court of Examiners and the Statutory Committee,