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GAZETTE
FEBRUARY
1989
Book Review
A Dictionary of Irish Law
by Henry Murdoch. Published by
Topaz Publications, 1988.
£25.00 PB, £38.00 HB.
It must be at least thirty years ago
that your reviewer discovered,
during a rare office clear-out, three
large, dusty, coverless and
dilapidated legal tomes. Being
naturally reluctant to throw out
anything of potential usefulness or
value, he consulted the Society's
then librarian, Colum Gavan Duffy.
That mine of bookish information
was enthusiastic! The three
volumes were the complete set of
Stroud's Judicial Dictionary, 2nd
Edition. Valuable? Not very - there
was a later edition. Useful?
Extremely.
Get the set re-bound
and see. He was absolutely correct.
Stroud remained a consistently
useful provider of answers to many
random problems. In fact, before
turning to Halsbury, a quick look at
this Judicial Dictionary often saved
lengthier research.
More recently, other legal
dictionaries have come on the
market, together with a relatively
new edition of Stroud - well worth
having, but expensive. All these are
based on UK law and the need has
increasingly been apparent for a
publication taking note of the ever
enlarging body of Irish statute and
case law, in which words and
phrases have received judicial
definition or consideration.
This, literally, mind-bending task
has now been undertaken by Henry
Murdoch B.E. C.Eng., FIEI, MBA,
Barrister, whose
Dictionary of Irish
Law
was published by Topaz
Publications of Dun Laoghaire on
29 November, 1988.
The book is excellently produced,
in both hardback and paperback, at
£38.00 and £25.00 respectively.
Sadly, the publishers have sent only
the paperback for review!
Nevertheless, even the paperback
edition made light work of a pre-
Christmas boat trip from Dun
Laoghaire to Holyhead, as this is a
book every bit as enjoyable to
browse through as to call upon for
solving instant problems.
One can but marvel at Mr.
Murdoch's industry. How much
easier it would have been merely to
have up-dated a previously existing
work. But Mr. Murdoch has started
from scratch and has produced a
570 page work - in what must be
the truest sense of the word -
which is in fact more than a mere
'dictionary'; while a great many
words or phrases are given simple
and straightforward definitions or
explanations, many are dealt with
discursively, to which extent the
book may be regarded as a mini-
Halsbury and very much less
expensive!
In addition to words which have
been defined statutorily or
judicially, Mr. Murdoch has included
a very fine selection of those Latin
Tags, so much beloved by our legal
forefathers. These are not without
their usefulness even today. On
receiving an enquiry from a friend
as to the quality of the pint in a
certain hostelry, one would argu-
able be negligent if one failed to
qualify a recommendation with the
observation
Simplex commendatio
non ob/igat,
especially if,
non cepit
modo et forma.
Although a defence
could perhaps be raised on the
principle of
nemo contra factum
suum proporiem venire potest.
Arguably, the time-worn ex-
pression "this is a book no
practitioner should be without" has
tended, over years of repetition, to
have lost its impact. For once,
however, the words are wholly
appropriate. Despite a few typo-
graphical errors - apparently
impossible to avoid through late-
twentieth century technology -
this excellently produced book
really is a "mus t" Buy the
hardback edition - it will receive
constant handling - and accept a
further piece of advice: don't just
put the book on your shelf and
forget it - browse through it at
length, as I have done; enjoy it for
what it is and, at the same time,
discover just how much is in it and
how it works. There is much more
in it than you would ever imagine.
Mr. Murdoch deserves our heartiest
congratulations. But of course,
simplex commendatio non obligat!
Charles R.M. Meredith
GAZETTE BINDERS
Price £5.14 (incl. VAT)
+ 87p postage
A DICTIONARY
OF IRISH LAW
By Henry Murdoch BL
"This dictionary provides an
excellent tool in hands of lawyers
both experienced and those less
experienced as well" ... The Hon.
Thomas A. Finlay, Chief Justice,
writing in the forward.
Now Available Post FreePrice
IR£25 Paperback - IR£38 Hardback
Direct from the publishers:
TOPAZ PUBLICATIONS
64, Upper Georges Street,
Dun Leogheire, Co. Dublin
... or from leading booksellers
WORDPLEX
EQUIPMENT
FOR SALE
IDEALLY SU I TED TO
A LEGAL PRACT ICE
Contact Marion Quinn at:
Craig Gardner & Co.
Telephone: 6 0 6 7 0 0
SOURCES OF EUROPEAN
COMMUN I TY LAW
Contd. from page 23.
Convention referred to the
European Court by national courts.
These cases are reported in the
European Court Reports
and the
Common Market Law Reports.
The
Digest
also includes extracts of
selected decisions of national
courts - in the language of the
court - on the Convention. The D
series of the
Digest
is up-to-date to
1984.
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