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The Courts-custodians of citizens
rights
IT WAS the function of the ordinary courts to determine
whether or not rights had been infringed and. where
there had been an infringement, what protection was to
be afforded, said the Chief Justicc. Cearbhall O Dalaigh,
in Dublin.
He was introducing a booklet. " Your Rights as an
Irish Citizen," published by the Irish Association of
Civil Liberty.
The courts were the keystone in any structure of
citizens' rights—they were the bulwark of those rights,
the Chief Justice said. The court's judges took an oath
to uphold the Constitution and the law, were indepen-
dent in the exercise of their functions, sat in public and
were irremovable except by the Oircachtas, and then
only for stated misbehaviour.
The Chief Justicc outlined the development of inter-
national conventions and declarations on human rights,
and mentioned that there were several important proto-
cols to the European Convention of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms—particularly the 1st and 4th
Protocols—that Ireland had not yet given effect to.
Of the booklet, he said there was no presumption that
every man must be taken to know the law. A modest
judge, Mr. Justice Maule, had once said that it would
be contrary to commonsense and reason if this were so.
But there was the rule that ignorance of the law did
not excuse. "And," he continued, "in both of these
circumstances—the absence of the presumption and the
existence of the rule—we have more than sufficient
reason to be grateful to the Irish Association of Civil
Liberty for compiling and publshing this booklet."
The booklet filled a need, he added, in 1938 Mr.
Justice Gavan Duffy had compiled a Constitutional
catechism.
Rights and duties
It was important that citizens should know their
rights, and what were the limitations on those rights;
and to inform the citizens of their rights and limitations,
was a contribution to the peace and happiness of the
community.
Anyone who underlined rights had to be careful not
to neglect to call attention to the corresponding duties,
the Chief Justice stated. It could be said that the
association had been careful to emphasise that one of
the citizens principal obligations was to obey the law.
He referred to a 12th century Irish compilation,
Leabhar na gCeart,
which was a record of the rights
and tributes due tb Irish kings. Its contents underlined
that the Declaration of Rights of Man and of the
Citizen, made in France in 1789 was still far in the
future.
But 1789 had been a very significant year, and it
could never be forgotten that Article 2 of that declara-
tion asserted: " The purpose of civil associations is the
preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of
man. These rights are liberty, property, resistance to
oppression."
The American Bill of Rights of 1791 (the first ten
Amendments) had been, with some limitations, *a prac-
tical application of the French Declaration and of
profound influence for good. But it had taken the
experience of the second World War and of all that
connoted, to awaken the world to the need to proclaim
and to safeguard human rights.
Human rights
The last 25 years had seen the publication by the
U.N. and the Council of Europe, of a number of decla-
rations and conventions of human rights, which were of
the highest importance, he went on.
The Chief Justice mentioned the International Bill
of Human Rights, and noted the European counterparts.
Firstly, the European Convention of Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, "which is in effect, if
unfortunately not also in form, part of our law
Of great significance, there were the institutions of
Strasbourg, the Commission of Court of Human Rights,
to ensure enforcement. There was also the European
Social Charter of 1961, and the Chief Justice stressed
its importance.
He said that the human rights situation in a given
country was composed of native elements, some of
which were not matters of law. and the Constitution
could be only one of the elements in the situation.
He suggested that, in its second edition, the associa-
tion's handbook might glance at the important field of
social right. For instance the Social Welfare Act. 1952,
had introduced the point about independent deciding
officers which was a great advance in civil law.
Among those who attended the launching of the
booklet were Professor Denis Donoghuc. Professor W.
R. Stanford, and Professor Geoffrey Hand, dean of
Faculty of Law, U.C.D.
Irish Times.
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