The Gazette 1990

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GAZETTE A PRIL 1990
In
this
Issue
Does the Irish Criminal
Justice System work? 161
Solicitors Costs 171
Irish Solicitors in London
Bar Association's
People & Places 176
Safety, Health and Welfare
at Work Act, 1989
Lawbrief
Correspondence
Book Reviews
Professional Information
180
183
187
189
194
*
Executive Editor:
Mary Gaynor
Committee:
Eamonn G. Hall, Chairman
Michael V. O'Mahony, Vice-Chairman
John F. Buckley
Gary Byrne
Patrick McMahon
Charles R. M. Meredith
Daire Murphy
John Schutte
Advertising:
Seán Ó hOisín. Telephone: 305236
Fax: 307860
Printing:
Turner's Printing Co. Ltd., Longford.
*
The views expressed in this publication,
save where otherwise indicated, are the
views of the contributors and not
necessarily the views of the Council of
the Society.
The appearance of an advertisement in
this publication does not necessarily
indicate approval by the Society for the
product or service advertised.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.
Tel.: 710711. Telex: 31219. Fax: 710704.
GAZETT INCORPORATE D
LAW SOCIETY
OF IRELAND
Vol.84 No.5 June 1990
Viewpoint
That the horrors of the Ceaucescu
Regime should lead to the high-
lighting of a serious lacuna in Irish
Family Law is yet another example
of what a small village our globe
has become. The discovery of
hundreds, if not thousands, of
orphans languishing in institutions
where most inadequate care was
available has brought forth a wave
of sympathy. A number of Irish
couples have sought to adopt some
of these unfortunate children and
have, no doubt to their great
surprise, discovered that Irish Law
is seriously lacking in this area.
"Foreign Adoptions" fall into two
distinct categories. The first where
the adoptive parents go through
the formalities of an adoption in a
foreign jurisdiction and comply fully
with the requirements of that juris-
diction. There are no formal means
of recognition in Ireland for such
adoptions.
The other category is where the
adoptive parents, perhaps due to
the absence of any proper adoption
procedures in some third world
countries, arrange what can only
be called an informal adoption and
bring a child back to ireland. They
will have extreme difficulty in
having that adoption recognised in
this jurisdiction. Even assuming
that they meet the criteria of our
Adoption Board and receive satis-
factory reports from an appropriate
Adoption Society or local authority,
there would be serious difficulties
in persuading the Board that the
necessary consents have been
obtained from the natural mother.
As the Law Reform Commis-
sion's recent Report on the Recog-
nition of Foreign Adoption Decrees
points out, even the first of these
categories presents considerable
difficulties. It might have been
thought that it would be easy to
draw up a list of "first world
countries" whose adoption pro-
cedures might have been assumed
to be similar to ours. Unfortunately
it is the position that some of these
countries permit adoption in cir-
cumstances which would not be in
accordance with our legislation.
Some permit unmarried persons to
adopt. Some permit adults to be
adopted. Others have no restriction
on the adoption of legitimate
children. It was for that reason that
the Commission in its Report rec-
ommended giving the Minister for
Health power to designate individ-
ual countries whose adoption
orders would be recognised in
Ireland.
The Commission also recom-
mended that the High Court be
given jurisdiction to make a declar-
ation that an applicant is or is not
the adopted child of a named
person by virtue of a foreign
adoption. This would be in ease of
persons adopted in a jurisdiction
where some of its adoption rules
might be similar to Irish ones but
others differ.
The Commission was not of
course considering the more
difficult problem of "Third World"
adoptions where it is doubtful
whether adoption procedures of a
quality which either our Minister or
our Courts would be likely to
approve exist.
Is there then to be no way in
which adoptive parents can ensure
the proper legal status of children
whom they have, in all good faith,
brought from a Third World country
to Ireland? There are few more
difficult problems than that of Third
World adoptions. Many would
argue that the success of such
adoptions must be doubtful given
the serious culture clash between
the adoptive parents and the child.
On the other hand it has to be
admitted that not all the children of
mono-cultural marriages avoid
serious psychological problems.
One of the strongest arguments
for instituting a regime which
would permit Irish adoptive parents
to go through adoption procedures
in Ireland is that it may go some
way towards stopping the traffick-
ing in children which is unfor-
tunately a feature particularly of
adoptions of South American
children. This has already been
recommended by the Report of the
Review Committee on Adoption
Services published in 1984. Some
action leading to the introduction of
legislation dealing both with the
recognition of foreign adoptions
and the adoption in Ireland of foreign
children is clearly called for.. •
159