The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

GEM N

JUNE 1993

• to give courts a general power to

require offenders to pay

compensation for any resulting

personal injury or loss.

The sentences that can be reviewed

uhder the Act include not only

sentences of imprisonment but also

any other orders made in dealing

with convicted persons, such as

orders for payment of fines and

probation orders.

Pursuant to section 6 of the 1993

Act, the courts are empowered to

require offenders to pay

compensation to the victim for any

resulting personal injury or loss. The

power is to be exercised unless the

court sees reason to the contrary.

The compensation must not exceed

the amount of the damages that the

court thinks that the injured party

would be entitled to recover in a civil

action for the injury or loss in

question (subject in the case of the

District Court to the monetary limit

of the court's jurisdiction in tort)

but the Court must have regard to

the convicted person's means or to

those of the parent or guardian,

where a parent or guardian is made

liable to pay the compensation.

Section 6 (4) of the 1993 Act provides

that compensation will not be payable

for injury or loss resulting from the

use of a motor vehicle in a public

place except in two instances. One is

where the convicted person was not

insured. The other is where the vehicle

was taken by the convicted person out

of the owner's possession and

damaged before being recovered. The

amount of the compensation may

include an amount representing the

whole or part of any consequential

loss of or reduction in preferential

rates of insurance.

Freedom of Expression: US

Court rules that a parade is a

form of speech

Many eyebrows were raised in Ireland

at the furore generated over whether

or not the Irish Lesbian and Gay

Organisation (ILGO) could

participate in the Saint Patrick's Day

Parade in New York this year.

The legal issues raised in relation

to the event related primarily to the

constitutional right of free speech.

The New York City Human Rights

Commission ruled on human rights

grounds that the sponsors of the

parade, the Ancient Order of

Hibernians (AOH) could not exclude

the ILGO from the parade. The

AOH refused to comply with this

ruling arguing that the Saint

Patrick's Day Parade was a Catholic

event, sponsored by a Catholic

organisation to celebrate a Catholic

life - the life of the patron of

Ireland and the patron of New York;

that homosexual activity was

diametrically opposed to Roman

Catholic Church teaching; and that a

group that proclaimed its

homosexuality should have no place

in it.

The issue came ultimately before

Judge Kevin Thomas Duffy of the

US Federal District Court as to

whether the City of New York could

compel the AOH to alter the

message that it wished to convey in

the parade by requiring the AOH to

include in the parade, and under its

own banner, the ILGO. The issue

arose as to whether the parade and

its message constituted "speech"

protected by the First Amendment

guarantee of freedom of speech of

the US Constitution. There is a

similar guarantee, but subject to

considerable qualification, in Article

40.6.1 (i) of the Irish Constitution.

Judge Duffy considered in his

judgment of February 26, 1993 that

a parade was, by its very nature, a

pristine form of speech. In parades,

people gather together for the

purpose of expressing their message.

The public thoroughfares of the

United States, he considered, are the

public fora in which the issues of the

day can be debated and where

individuals seek to engage in basic

expressive activity, such as parading.

He considered that every parade was

designed to convey a message. As

such, a parade organised by a private

sponsor was the quintessential

exercise of the First Amendment

right of freedom of expression.

The judge considered that the First

Amendment guarantees an individual

the right to free speech, "a term

necessarily comprising the decision

of both what to say and what not to

say." In exercising this right, the

message intended to be conveyed by

a parade sponsored by a private

organisation was to be determined by

the parade sponsor and not by the

state or the city. The manner and

means by which the message was

conveyed was also a matter of

constitutionally protected free

speech. The New York City Human

Rights Commission had ordered the

AOH to include the ILGO in the

parade and in so doing, had violated

the parade sponsor's right to free

speech. In effect, the commission

had ordered the AOH to associate

with speech with which they

disagreed. Accordingly, the judge

ordered that the City of New York

was not to interfere with the conduct

of the AOH's 1993 New York parade

by requiring the inclusion of any

contingent which had not been

approved by the AOH and the

parade committee.

•

Pauline Whyte

Would any solicitor who around

1972 contacted Pauline Whyte, born

in Cairo in 1914, subsequently

adopted, lived in Rutland Street,

Limerick until 1948, then moved to

Liverpool, England, and died there

in February, 1992, please contact

her family who wishes to trace her

natural relatives. Box No: 46.

Irish Solicitors

Golfing Soceity

The Captain's Prize will take

place at the Curragh Golf Club

on Friday 28 May, 1993. A

Time Sheet will be in operation

and bookings for same may be

made by telephoning

Carol

Mahon

at 8728233, 8744147,

8728581.

William Jolley,

Hon. Secretary.

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