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GAZETTE
JUNE 1992
The scope, sensitivity and subtlety of
Patrick Hannon's text cannot be
captured in a review. Apart from
those who will be professionally
interested, I would like to think his
book could be read by everyone of
voting age in Ireland. It is certainly
a must for all involved in decision-
making in this country, however
remotely. Christians cherish a feeling
of deep solidarity with the human
race and its history (
Gaudium et
Spes
): [the Christian voter] has his
own assignment in this mission of
the whole People of God (
Decree on
the Apostolate of Lay People).
This
book will be invaluable, above all, in
helping the voter to shape that
assignment.
Mary
Redmond
Industrial Relations Law
by Michael Forde (The Round Hall
Press, 1991. 326 pp, £39.00
hardback.)
Lawyers will not be surprised to
receive another book from Dr.
Forde; nor will they be disappointed
by its contents. This time the topic is
Industrial Relations Law.
The book is about collective labour
law as distinct from individual
employment protection (a future
volume on the last mentioned is
promised). It provides some insight
into Irish industrial relations law
from a comparative point of view
although the reader will know to
tread carefully when using
comparative analogies in this area.
Following an introductory chapter,
the author maps out the following
topics: Employers and Workers'
Associations; Underpinning
Bargaining; Collective Agreements;
the Right to take Industrial Action;
Liability for Industrial Action; the
Public Sector; other Methods in
Industrial Relations; Internal Union
Affairs; and in an Appendix he
details provisions in twelve statutes
relevant to his topic. The index, a
vital part of any law book for the
practitioner, runs to two pages. Too
short: it does not do justice to the
text.
A merit of the work is that the law
is stated as it stands after the new
Act of 1990 (according to the
preface, as at 1 July, 1991). The
reader might have been referred to
decisions on the Industrial Relations
Act, 1990 given before publication.
Section 9(2) was invoked in
Iarnrod
Eireann
-v-
Darby and
O'Connor
(High Court, 22 March, 1991);
Michael McNamara & Co Ltd.
-v-
Lacken
(High Court, 12 January,
1991) and in the important
Westman
Holdings Ltd.
-v-
McCormack
(High
Court, 19 April, 1991; Supreme
Court, 14 May, 1991, see [1991]
ILRM 833.
A book like this will enjoy a wide
audience including trade unionists,
personnel managers, and the like. A
common misconception (among non-
lawyers in particular) is that once
industrial action is "in
contemplation or furtherance of a
trade dispute", the action, no matter
what form it takes, is immune from
civil proceedings. The statute is seen
as a definitive statement of what is
permissible; the immunities as rights.
To correct this perspective, I believe
it is crucial, when strike and
industrial action are being analysed,
to deal with the growing
jurisprudence on liability for
industrial action first. Then, as a
sub-set, the statutory immunities. Dr.
Forde arranges his material in the
reverse way.
The book will be a useful addition
to the growing literature on Irish
collective labour law.
Mary
Redmond
Constitutional Adjudication in
European Community and National
Law (Essays for The Hon. Mr
Justice T F O'Higgins).
Edited by
Deirdre Curtin and David O'Keeffe.
[Dublin, Butterworth (Ireland) Ltd,
1992 xxxi + 307 pp, IR£30
hardback.]
Judges determining constitutional
issues must be thinkers, and more
particularly, legal philosophers.
Judge Learned Hand believed that it
was as important for a judge called
upon to pass judgment on a
question of constitutional law to
have at least a bowing acquaintance
with Acton and Maitland, with
Thucydides, Gibbon and Carlyle,
with Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and
Milton, with Machiavelli, Montaigne
and Rabelais, with Plato, Bacon,
Hume and Kant, as with the legal
literature which had been specifically
written on the subject. Sometimes we
expect too much from our judges.
In their introduction, the editors
write that the ideas for this book
came from a desire to pay tribute to
a remarkable person, Mr Justice T F
O'Higgins, who has held office in
the highest Irish and European
Community judicial forums, on the
occasion of his retirement from the
Bench in October, 1991.
The editors are distinguished legal
academics. Professor Deirdre Curtin
is professor of the law of
International Organisations in the
University of Utrecht and a former
Legal Secretary to Mr Justice
O'Higgins. Professor David O'Keeffe
is Allen and Overy Professor of
European Law, Head of the Law
School in the University of Durham,
and is also a former Legal Secretary
to Mr Justice O'Higgins.
The book is graced with a preface by
Her Excellency, Mrs Robinson,
President of Ireland. She notes that
Mr Justice O'Higgins brought a
treasury of insight and practical
expression of the common law and
Irish constitutional law to a forum
of European law where academic
training and legal specialisation are
more often the norm. President
Robinson is joined by a
distinguished array of scholars who
have contributed essays on the theme
of constitutional adjudication.
It would be difficult in this short
notice to do justice to the
contributions in this book. The
contributors include Judge Ole Due,
President of the Court of Justice of
the European Communities, who
writes on the issue of a
constitutional court for the
European Communities, Judge Davie
Edward who considers the
public/private law distinction in
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