375 / 482
GAZETTE
OCTOBER 1989
but our views coincided, although
not always in every particular.
What has baan the relationship
be tween Irish l aw and t he
European institutions?
Every country in Europe save the
United Kingdom has a written con-
stitution. So with our entry into the
European Community we were
going into a system which we were
already well aware of from our own
system. The Treaties are all subject,
in the last analysis, to the inter-
pretations of the European Court of
Justice at Luxembourg. So to that
extent every country has sur-
rendered a bit of sovereignty. But to
us that was nothing new because
we lived under a system where
there was judicial review anyway.
So we didn't suffer from the shock
which perhaps may have been
suffered in the United Kingdom,
where the system of parliamentary
supremacy reigns and no law can
ever be challenged once it has been
passed. We were quite accustomed
to striking down laws. It is similar
wi th the European Convention on
Human Rights. While it is not part
of the domestic law of Ireland,
virtually all the guarantees contained
in it are in the Irish Constitution.
That is why there have been so few
Irish cases brought - only t wo so
far. Complaints would already be
dealt wi th in the Irish courts.
How does being e judge of a
national court compare wi th
being a judge at the European
Court of Human Rights?
The experience is quite pleasant in
the sense that virtually every
matter I've dealt w i th since 1980,
when I went to the European Court
of Human Rights, I had already
dealt w i th in one form or another
here. The same problems keep
cropping up, as do the same
problems that have been en-
countered in the United States.
Quite recently in Strasbourg we
had to decide a case involving a
property matter in Britain. We
actually applied a decision of the
United States Supreme Court that
touched exactly on the point. I
might add that this delighted the
United States Supreme Court - it
was the first time they had ever
been mentioned in a decision of the
ECJ. They were very pleased by it.
I got a letter from them about it.
They like to know that their judg-
ments are of worldwide value. •
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