269 / 294
would interfere with the plaintiff's residence. The de-
fendants replied that the building would not interfere
with the plaintiff's right to light. The nearest point of
defendant's premises is 43 feet from plaintiff's new
ground floor windows.
The defendants appealed on the ground that Teevan,
J. should not have awarded damages in respect of
obstruction of light to new windows which were not
ancient lights; they also contended that the plaintiff
was not entitled to damages for loss of amenity as
well as damages based in the diminution of the value
of her property. The obstruction of genuine ancient
lights in plaintiff's premises is not disputed. The plain-
tiff contended that
Griffith v. Clay
(1912) 2Ch. 291—
decided that general damages may include compensa-
tion for obstruction to light of modern windows in
the same way as if they were ancient lights—but this
was rejected by Fitzgerald, J. However it was held
that a judge is entitled to take into account as much
loss of amenity in the future use of the premises,
as the future selling value of the property. The sum of
£1,700 bears no reasonable relation to the injury
suffered by the plaintiff in respect of these matters.
Consequently the Supreme Court (Fitzgerald and
McLoughlin, J., per Fitzgerald, J., Walsh, J., dissent-
ing) allowed the appeal.
[Scott v. Goulding Fertilisrs Ltd.; 29th February
1972; Supreme Court; unreported.]
Directors and their Accountants are entitled to make
Copies of Books of Account of the Relevant
Company.
Plaintiff and second defendant are directors of the
company, the first defendant. The plaintiff complained
that he had been excluded from the management of
the Company, and sought an inspection of the register
of members, the minute book, and the books of account,
and wished to have an accountant with him when he
was checking this. The defendants refused to allow
anyone except the plaintiff to see the books of account
although they would allow an accountant to see the
register of members and the minute book. Kenny, J.,
held that under section 147 of the Companies Act
1963 quoted, the right of a director to inspect the
books of a company, when he has an obligation placed
on him, the breach of which may involve him in
criminal liability, necessarily implies that he has the
right to employ a qualified agent to advise him. The
question whether proper books are being kept is essen-
tially one on which an accountant is the only person
qualified to advise upon. The director and his accoun-
tant are also entitled to make copies of the books of
account or any part of them.
[Daniel Healy v. Healy Homes Ltd. and Kilcoyne;
Kenny, J.; unreported; 19th June 1972.]
Supra-National Justice?
by CONOR BRADY
Recent court decisions seem to indicate that, at least
within the E.E.G. the tradition is changing of countries
refusing to extradite those wanted for political offences.
These are good days for Europe's policemen. From
Holland to Sicily and from Glasgow to Kerry, the men
involved in law enforcement are doing nicely from their
governments' fears of organised political violence. Very
quietly and with scant notice from the international
press, European governments in recent months have
begun a significant tightening of their lines of inter-
national policing and individual states have made sub-
stantial improvements in the pay, conditions and
staffing of their police forces.
At the level of international relations there has been
a noticeable hardening in recent months among Euro-
pean justice systems. The most significant manifestation
of this was a decision in August by the Belgian courts
to grant the Italian Government's request for the extra-
dition of three members of a Leftist group wanted for
offences in Italy with clear political overtones. The
three men were members of the October 22nd, Move-
ment, one of Italy's largest left-wing groups and their
offences as stated to the Belgian court were kidnapp-
ing and armed robbery.
What the Belgian court was not told—and apparently
did not want to know anyway—was that the three faced
numerous other charges in Italy of a more overt politi-
cal nature. As it was, the two offences with which the
Belgians were charged were politically connected in
themselves.
The Belgian decision, unprecedented in that country's,
judicial history, was in violation of the long-standing
convention among European Governments that extra-
dition is not granted in political offences. Significantly
too, a similar application two years ago by the Portu-
guese Government was turned down by the Belgians
and legal observers believe there is a significance in the
fact that while Portugal is outside the E.E.G., both Italy
and Belgium áre members of the community.
Left-wing co-operation
It is known that police authorities in Italy, France and
Germany have long been seriously concerned at the
growth in international co-operation among left-wing
groups in their respective areas and while the conven-
tion of refusing extradition for political offences has
been honoured, a noticeable increase in co-operation on
political matters has come about between Italian,
French and German police. With the Belgians now
adopting a strong line however, it might well be asked
whether the entire E.E.G. area is moving towards a
very much closer system of police co-operation espec-
ially in regard to the handling of left-wing activists.
The justification for introducing some measure of
uniformity among European police forces rolls easily off
the tongues of Justice officials; free flow of money and
goods provides more opportunities for the criminal;
reduction of frontier formalities and work restrictions
makes the policeman's job of tracking people and goods
more difficult. And up to a point this approach is valid.
The problem, however, is to know just how far such
standardisation should be allowed to go and whether it
should also be extended to include the courts and the
judicial system.
There are signs already that the British may be con-
templating some moves towards European standards in
these matters—influenced no doubt by the growth of
political violence in Northern Ireland and in England
itself. The British would be the last to admit that they
Continued on page
275
- 2 7 3