165 / 216
June. 1943]
The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland
11
public generally and that is the question of
the setting up by the Legislature of a Com
mission or Commissions to enquire into and
report on the necessity for reform of our laws.
The State took over the existing laws when it
was set up in 1923 by the Adaptation of En
actments Act. Since then there has been some
small adjustments of the law but there has
been no general consideration or any attempt
made for a complete reform of laws to bring
them up to date.
I trust that this matter
will receive early consideration.
It is only
necessary to refer to the Company Laws and
to the Bankruptcy Laws. We are also faced
with
the feudal system of
primogeniture
which affects all real property, except that
covered by the Local Registration of Title
Act.
It is time the question of the unjust
Will by which a Testator may leave all his
property away from his wife and family was
dealt with.
The passing of property in
intestacy also requires consideration, and
the widow's right to £500 when her husband
dies intestate and without issue requires,
under present circumstances, to be drastically
altered. This is only a very brief resume, as
the question of the reform of existing laws
requires very careful and exhaustive exam
ination.
I desire to stress the magnificent work
carried out by our Benevolent Association
and to express surprise that every Solicitor
is not a member of this Association. No one
knows the day or hour that he may be called
from this world and no one of us can say that
we will leave those near and dear to us in a
position of affluence.
The work of this
Association is a great charitable work and
one to which every Solicitor should give
every possible assistance and financial aid.
There is just one other matter to which
I feel I should refer and that is the educa
tional standard in recent years of
those
students who seek admission to our profes
sion. Our Council and our Court of Examin
ers have viewed with considerable alarm the
lack of the former high standard of proficiency
in the examinations, especially in the Final
Examination.
I, of course, only refer to the
lack of honour passes in the past number of
years.
I am afraid that a considerable
amount of this lack of honours has been due
to the great strain imposed upon the students
in passing their Final Irish Examination the
same year as they present themselves for
their Final Law Examination. When the
Legal Practitioners' (Qualification) Act, 1929,
was passed }?our Council undertook to the
Department of Justice that they would carry
out that act to the letter and in the spirit
and they have done so. The standard re
quired for the Final Irish Examination is a
very high standard and must have mitigated
against the intensive study required to obtain
honours at our Final Law Examination.
There is no person keener on the development
and restoration of our national language
than I am and I believe that we are justified
in recommending to the Department of
Justice that our students should be permitted
to present themselves for their Final Irish
Examination in the second last year of their
studies. I also am of opinion that the whole
educational system of our apprentices should
be enquired into and amended »to meet
modern conditions. With this in view your
Council has authorised the setting up of a
Special Committee to consider this matter
and to report in due course. We hope that
as a result of the work of this Special Com
mittee our students will be better able to
deal with the very many "difficult problems
that arise under modern conditions.
At
present there are different problems to face
than fifty or even twenty-five years ago.
It is customary to review the work of the
Council at this half-yearly meeting. During
the past six months your Council and the
various Committees have been engaged in
the ordinary work of the Society, and from
time to time there have appeared in the
GAZETTE reports of the work of the Council.
You will recollect our Past-President referring
to the many Committees of the Council
necessitated by the fact that there were in
existence eight different Committees,
in
addition to the Court of Examiners and the
Statutory Committee.
For various reasons
some of these eight Committees were out of
date and gave unnecessary work both to the
members of the Council and to the staff.
Accordingly a Committee was set up to
consider the Bye-Laws of the Council, and
as a result new Bye-Laws were drafted and
approved by the Council and the number of
Committees were reduced to four as follows :-
(1) Legislation and Privileges.
(2) Court and Offices.
(3) House, Library and Finance.
(4) Gazette.
There is, of course, in addition, the Court of
Examiners and the Statutory Committee,