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Mr. MacBride told the interviewer that he held
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be
the greatest landmark in the history of mankind,
more important than the Magna Carta, the
American Declaration of Independence, and the
French Declaration of the Rights of Man.
On the role of the Churches in the field of
international rights, Mr MacBride says: "The
Vatican should wake up to the fact that its influ
ence lies with this public concern for justice rather
than through overcautious channels.
"It must emphasise a positive stand on the
morality of human rights which are flouted in big
public issues, rather than appear self-absorbed
with questions of sex, birth control and celibacy."
The action of Pope Paul in protesting at the
death sentences passed on Basque Nationalists in
Spain and on Jews in Soviet Russia is to be
commended.
SOLICITORS MAY SIT AS JUDGES
Amendments to the Courts Bill, which would
make solicitors eligible for appointment as Re
corders and open the door for their eventual
appointment as Circuit Judges, were tabled yester
day by Lord Hailsham, the Lord Chancellor.
He is also seeking broader powers enabling
him to give solicitors the right to represent clients
in certain cases, before new circuit courts through
out the country.
Since the Courts Bill was introduced in the
House of Lords solicitors have been contesting
Lord Hailsham's rejection of a majority recom
mendation by Lord Beeching's Royal Commission
on Assizes and Quarter Sessions, that solicitors
should be eligible for appointment as Circuit
Judges in the new system of Crown Courts.
They have also campaigned for wider rights
of audience in the criminal courts, which they
claim are required in the public interest because
of a shortage of barristers and pressure of work
on the legal profession.
The effect of Lord Hailsham's amendment is
that solicitors, as well as barristers of 10 years'
standing, will be eligible for appointment as part-
time Recorders, who will share the less serious
criminal work with Circuit Judges.
After five years as a Recorder, a solicitor will
be eligible for appointment to the circuit bench.
Barristers will not have to wait the extra five
years, but when the new system is in operation
it is thought unlikely they would be made Judges
without several years' experience as Recorders.
Under the Bill as it stands, the Lord Chancellor
has power to open individual circuit courts to
solicitors where a shortage of available barristers
is established. His amendment would enable him
to give solicitors a general right of audience
in certain cases in courts throughout the country.
A cautious reaction came yesterday from the
Law Society, which represents 22,000 solicitors.
A spokesman said they were still "studying" the
amendments.
But amendments to the Bill by Lord Tangley
and Lord Goodman, both solicitors, which will
make solicitors eligible on the same terms as bar
risters for appointment as Circuit Judges, and
give solicitors rights of audience in specific cases,
have been reintroduced for the Bill's report stage
in the Lords today.
(Daily Telegraph,
14 December 1970)
ARTICLES
CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION
By JOHN TEMPLE LANG
SOLICITOR
Since I wrote here last August about a possible
new Constitution for the Republic of Ireland, I
have found that two ideas are being considered
which it would be a serious mistake to adopt. The
first is to change the method of amending the
Constitution so that it could be amended by a
resolution passed by a three-quarters majority
of the Dail and Senate together, or even by an
ordinary Act of the Oireachtas. The purpose of
this change would be to save the trouble, expense
and controversy of a national referendum, under
which the Irish people are asked to vote for or
against a change in the basic law of the State, as
they did on the question of proportional repre
sentation.
If the Constitution could be altered by an
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