The Gazette 1991

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g a z e t t e april 1991
In
this
Issue
Viewpoint
Without Prejudice or
Without effect
47
49
Mr. Justice Frank Griffin
- a Retrospect 55
Lawbrief 61
Obituaries
John Kelly 65
Antonia O'Callaghan 66
Trusteeship & the Pensions
Act, 1990 75
Notes from Solicitors Mutual
Defence Fund Ltd. 79
CAT - Self Assessment
Video 83
Minitel: Services for Legal
Executive Editor:
Mary Gaynor
Committee:
Eamonn G. Hall, Chairman
Michael V. O'Mahony, Vice-Chairman
John F. Buckley
Patrick McMahon
Daire Murphy
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Fax: 307860
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save where otherwise indicated, are the
views of the contributors and not
necessarily the views of the Council of
the Society.
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indicate approval by the Society for the
product or service advertised.
Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.
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GAZETT INCORPORATE D
LAW SOCIETY
OF IRELAND
Vol.85 No.2 March 1991
Viewpoint
GETTING THE SYSTEM TO
WORK
In his talk on the occasion of the
presentation of the P J O'Reilly
Award, Dr. Tony O'Reilly drew our
attention to the difficulties of
participating in the economic
systems of Russia and Eastern
Europe. His firm could not put a
factory into a Russian city because
the Law of Property and the Law of
Contract there did not exist. He
could not assure his shareholders
that the jurisprudential under-
pinning wh i ch is taken for granted
by us, would operate within the
next 20 or 30 years. We should be
grateful for the underpinning and
infra-structure which facilitates and
exh i l a r a t es c omme r ce and
economic development here.
While it is of course true that we
do have the constitutional and
other p r o t ec t i ons t hat a well
developed legal structure gives to
the conduct of commerce and
indeed of ordinary life, there are
aspects on wh i ch we should not
congratulate ourselves.
The i mp r o v eme nt of infra-
structure in this country has largely
concentrated on the improvement
of physical infra-structure, roads,
communications etc. The practical
legal infra-structure still is quite
inadequate. We do not have a Land
Registry s y s t em or indeed a
Registry of Deeds system wh i ch
wo r ks w i t h in acceptable t ime
limits. Both of these institutions
have been deprived of funds over
the years and have not been
permitted to develop themselves so
as to provide an adequate service
to their consumers. The Companies
Office, even more strategic perhaps
to commercial activities, is in a
similar position. Ministers have
made much play of the introduction
of compu t e r i sa t i on into these
Registries. It has to be said that
there is little point in computerising
the end product if the process is
impossibly slow. To have informa-
tion emerge from a computer, as is
the position in the Companies
Office, wh i ch is anything up to 10
weeks old, does not serve any
useful purpose. It is difficult to
avoid the suspicion that there is a
certain amount of window dressing
about the computerisation.
The Land Registry is due to be
converted into some form of State
Corporation. This alone will not be
sufficient, though it is essential
that it be properly funded and
structured, it requires also a reform
of our Laws of Property and
Conveyancing to enable it to
operate in what will shortly be a
21st Century climate.
The other part of this island has
just produced its recommendations
for the reform of its Land and
Conveyancing Law. The work of the
Working Party under Professor
John Wylie had the enormous
advantage of the basic review of
Northern Ireland Land Law pub-
lished in 1971 but it still took 10
years to complete its work.
We cannot afford a 10 year time
scale for the preparation of recom-
mendations if we are to present
ourselves as a Western developed
country. The present Law Reform
Commission was asked to give
special a t t en t i on to areas of
Criminal Law and a whole time
Commissioner, experienced in this
area was appointed to spear head
this work. Much of it will have been
completed by the time the present
Comm i s s i o n 's t e rm of o f f i ce
expires at the end of 1991. There
is a strong case for making Land
Law and Conveyancing a principal
object of the next Commission's
attention during its 5 year term. We
are already a long way behind other
' Common Law countries and now
Northern Ireland in this modernisa-
tion of Land and Conveyancing
Law, and priority must be given to
it. •
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