The Gazette 1973

EDITORIAL

The patience of a Judge

The following leading article from the

Guardian

on 11

May 1973 is published without comment.

The need to re-try the Barn Restaurant murder case

is, as Mr. Justice Melford Stevenson has pointed out, a

public misfortune—and an expensive one; but the case

also draws attention to a more general public issue

which ought to be brought into the open. To raise the

issue is not to cast any reflection on the conduct of this

particular trial. No-one with experience of the criminal

court, however, can doubt that some judges have

earned a reputation for being prosecution-minded, for

interventions and comments which can harry the de-

fence. In one or two extreme cases the Appeal Court

has set aside verdicts on the ground of excessive inter-

vention from the bench, but these are rare exceptions.

More generally the question is one of court-room

atmosphere—and it is by no means clear that an im-

patient judge actually assists the prosecution; a clever

defence counsel can secure the sympathy of the jury

against such interventions and so bias their judgment in

favour of the defence. What is clear is that a judge

who fails to maintain judicial detachment does not

help to ensure that justice is done.

If a problem so well known to lawyers is so little

debated, it is because it is not easy to suggest how the

situation can be improved without in some way de-

rogating from the treasured principle of judicial in-

dependence; but surely there is no need for the authori-

ties to he entirely helpless. Judges, after all, recognise

that their different temperaments could lead to a

dangerous inconsistency in sentencing policy, and they

regularly meet to discuss this question. A similar attempt

to produce more uniform standards of conduct in court

could produce a noticeable improvement, for the

present feeling of judges that their conduct is immune

from comment encourages the indulgence of tempera-

ment. Only three weeks ago the Lord Chancellor read

a wise lecture to magistrates on the judicial tempera-

ment—which means a deliberate attempt to suppress

one's own inclinations; the Lord Chief Justice might

give a similar lead to judges.

Secondly, the authorities should recognise the human

strain which is put on those judges who hear only

criminal cases. To ask a man to maintain an open-

minded impartiality for year after year of listening to

the details of mean and hurtful crimes is asking him to

be rather more than human; it is nearly always after

long service that judges acquire a reputation for im-

patience. It might be wise to limit the period over

which any judge is exposed to an unbroken succession

of criminal trials; a spell hearing the tangled civil

disputes which are brought to court, where there is no

temptation to feel driven by the need to defend society

against the wrong-doer, might relieve the strain.

If such steps did not relieve the situation, then atten-

tion should be given to the more radical demands of

reforming lawyers—for a complaints procedure apart

from the courts of appeal, and for some power to secure

the early retirement of judges whose conduct is too

generally criticised. But to urge such steps before the

problem has even been officially recognised is pre-

mature; we should first ask that the judiciary should

make a greater effort to regulate its own conduct.

THE SOCIETY

Ordinary General Meeting

An Ordinary General Meeting was held at the Great

Southern Hotel Killarney on Saturday, 12 May 1973.

The President took the chair.

By permission of the meeting the notice convening

the meeting and the minutes of the last general meet-

ing of the Society were taken as read.

Mr. Donal E. Browne addressing the meeting on

behalf of Mr. Gerald Baily the President of the Kerry

Law Society who was unavoidably absent welcomed

the Society to Killarney.

On the proposal of the President seconded by Mr.

Gerard M. Doyle the following members of the Society

were appointed as scrutineers of the ballot for the

election of the Gouncil for the year 1973/"74 : R. J.

Branigan, T. Jackson, B. P. McCormack, A. J.

McDonald, R. Tierney.

The President addressing the meeting said :

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It falls to my lot as President for this year to address

you on the occasion of this biennial meeting at Killar-

ney. It has been customary in the past for the President

to comment on current events affecting the profession

and its clients. I propose to depart a little from this

practice during this address and to make some com-

ments on a matter that must affect us all, practitioners

and clients alike, namely the future of our profession.

Where do we stand? Where are we going? What is

likely to be the business of the profession in 10, 20 or