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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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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