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(Acquisition) Acts and if it is proposed to reduce
such fees and thereby encourage the building of
more houses.
Mr. Smith : I am not empowered by the Small
Dwellings Acquisition Acts to authorise a scale
of fees to be charged by solicitors o f local authorities
for their services. My Department has, however,
been in consultation with the Incorporated Law
Society with a view to securing modification of
such fees in appropriate cases. The Incorporated
Law Society is considering the matter and I under
stand that they hope to be in a position shortly
to express the detailed views o f the profession.
In the meantime certain modifications o f fees have
been made in particular cases.
Mr. O’H ara: Is the Minister aware that the
solicitors referred to are already in the employment
of the various County Councils and are in receipt
of salaries and would he not consider making
representations to the Incorporated Law Society
with a view to preventing this overcharging on the
part o f solicitors ?
Mr. Smith : I thought I told the Deputy I was
in fact in consultation with the Incorporated Law
Society.
Mr. Hickey : I f a local authority is paying a
a salary to their legal adviser and an individual
takes a property from that particular local authority,
is it competent for the solicitor who is the legal
adviser to the local authority to do the necessary
legal work ?
An Ceann Comhairle : That is a separate question.
Mr. Smith : I think it is a different kind o f case
from the one referred to by Deputy O’Hara. He
is thinking in terms of small farmers who would
apply under the Act.
A VISIT TO THE
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
(
continued)
On Monday morning, 17th September, 1951,
the first session of the General Meeting o f the
American Bar Association opened and the
programme continued right through until the
following Saturday, six days as opposed to three
during Chief Justice Kennedy’s 1928 visit. Four
thousand, two hundred lawyers registered for the
week. Hear Chief Justice Kennedy once again :
“ The American Bar Association is far from being
a merely convivial or social gathering of professional
.brethren, though the foreign guest may be pardoned
for harking back with some enthusiasm to that
side o f its programme which has made for him
a brilliant and happy memory. In the crowded
ranks o f the Association are included numbers
of men of great learning and scholarship, men o f
wide and varied experience, professional, judicial,
and educational, and men in touch with every
phase o f the national life, o f men intensely concerned
with the national problems, and with the part
played by the legal profession in public affairs
and full o f eager anxiety that the profession shall
fill worthily the big public role which belongs to
it by virtue of its special training and experience.
Throughout the year many committees and com
missions are engaged, under the authority o f the
Association, upon the examination o f innumerable
current problems, drafting Bills, framing proposals
and forming and stating opinion.
The reports
o f these many-sided activities are offered to the
Annual Convention and considered, and, in many
cases, important action is taken upon them.
I
cannot, within the compass o f a short article like
this, attempt to survey all the subjects.”
The programme was divided into six meetings
o f the General Assembly and approximately fifty
committee meetings during the course of the week.
The documentation included a miniature newspaper
published daily. I set out hereunder just a few
o f the many items discussed at committees or
on which papers were delivered during the week.
“ Public Relations and Press Releases ; Routine
Work o f Bar Association Offices ; How to Maintain
and Increase Membership in Voluntary Associations
•—Fund Raising Ideas ;
Co-ordination of Local
Bar Associations with State Associations ; Legal
Institutes ; Association Publications and Bulletins f
Proposed Commercial Code; Government Control
o f Business ; Problems o f the Business Lawyer ;
Food, Drug and Cosmetic L aw ; Discussion of
Uniform State Food, Drug and Cosmetic Laws ;
Discussion o f International Uniformity in Food,
Drug and Cosmetic Law between United Kingdom,
Canada and United States; Discussion o f Major
Drug Law Problems; Report on Proposed Uniform
Commercial Code ; The Protection of Individual
Rights and Government Security in time of stress ;
Aviation Criminal L aw ; International Criminal
Law ; Medico-Legal Examiners A c t ; Membership ;
Military and Naval Justice; Motion Pictures,
Radio Broadcasting and Comics in relation to the
Administration of Justice ; Nominating Committee;
Police Training and-Administration ;
Problems
o f Juvenile Delinquency; Procedure, Prosecution
and Defence ; Scope and Program ; Sentencing,
Probation and Parole;
Traffic and Magistrate
Courts ; The Responsibility of the Press, Radio
and Television for Fair Criminal Trials.”
In addition papers were read and discussion
ensued on. Municipal Law, Tax Law, Insurance