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Our Law System and E.E.C
When we join the enlarged community and come into
much closer contact with the Continentals, we must
look dispassionately at our system of law, retaining that
which we think is good but discarding that which we
see is bad or illogical, said the Minister for Justice, Mr.
D. O'Malley, T.D., speaking at a meeting at the
Metropole Hotel, Cork.
At the outset of his address, entitled "The Law and
the EEC", Mr. O'Malley said that he was not sure that
the legal profession and the public generally are yet fully
alive to the repercussions which our entry into the
Common Market will have on the profession, on legal
concepts and, indeed, on the whole legal system in
member states.
The Minister went on to say that Community law is
primarily concerned with economic and commercial
activities and related social matters, and it is princi-
pally in these fields that amendments to our domestic
legislation will be necessary.
In particular, he added, there will be no significant
effect so far as our criminal law is concerned. Entry
into the Common Market will not affect the structure
of our Courts, nor will it have any considerable effect
on the quantity and nature of their work at least in the
short term.
Important
However, there will be an important new body of law
in the financial, industrial and commercial fields to be
dealt with by our Courts; new procedures will have to
he established to provide for references to the European
Court from our domestic courts in appropriate cases,
and also for the enforcement within the State of the
European Court's decisions.
Reform Need
Mr. O'Malley said that the prospect of change in our
legal concepts need not, however, deter us in any way.
Much of our law is in need of reform in any case, and
we need not anticipate any overwhelming difficulty in
adopting whatever changes may be necessary to meet
the Community requirements.
Having dealt with some of the provisions and rules,
he said that it is clear that, if Irish lawyers are to
participate in the proceedings of the Court of Justice,
they will have to become familiar with Community
law, and with civil law procedures and rules of inter-
pretation.
"As to the effect on the practice of lawyers in this
country," he said, "it is probably true to say that, for
most lawyers, and for most branches of the law, entry
into the Common Market will have little immediate
impact."
Commerce Field
"Entry should not affect practice in the criminal
law, nor should it have any material effect on practice
in, for example, the law of tort, landlord and tenant or
succession. There should, however, be a considerable
effect on practice in the field of commercial law."
Dealing with the subject of education for the legal
profession, Mr. O'Malley said that, whatever we do in
regard to legal education must be done in the context
of our prospective entry into the Common Market.
"It seems to me that now, as we draw closer to
Europe and as contact with continental institutions
becomes inevitable, comparative law has become a
very important subject in the training of a lawyer. Our
law schools will have to provide full courses in com-
parative law (with special reference to French and
German law) and in international private law. French
or German should be a compulsory subject for all
univesity degrees in law."
Idea Adoption
"The lawyer of tomorrow will have to be more fully
armed then his predecessors and I am sure our univer-
sities will play their part in seeing that he is."
Having made the statement mentioned at the outset,
Mr. O'Malley said if the French or Germans or the
Italians order things better, as they often do, nothing
should prevent us from adopting their ideas.
Dealing with study by solicitors' apprentices, he said
he thought there was much to be said for divorcing the
university or law school training from the practical
training, and he had suggested before that a university
degree in law might be made an essential requirement
before the prospective solicitor enters a solicitor's office
at all.
Having said in conclusion that the prospect of change
should not, however, be received in any negative spirit,
the Minister said he hoped entry into the Common
Market would be received by our lawyers as a welcome
opportunity to enlarge their professional horizons, both
through the reception of new ideas and through the
exercise of their professional talents in fields far wider
than those open to them at present.
Mr. Bryan McMahon, lecturer in law, UGG, received
a fine ovation for his complete down-to-earth address
on aspects of the law of the EEC and how it will affect
the country and the ordinary man in the street.
The Cork Examiner
(30th October 1971)
161