219 / 300
tice, the Judge must warn the jury that it is dangerous
to convict an accused on the uncorroborated evidence
of accomplices, or in cases of sexual offences against
women or between males, that the jury should not
convict on the evidence of the alleged injured party
alone. The evidence in a corroboration must be evid-
ence which implicates the accused. Where a case
depends on visual identification, the jury must be told
that it is dangerous to act on this evidence.
A jury which is unable to agree upon a verdict is
discharged. The possible sentences are : death for
defined capital murder; penal servitude—maximum
life. If not specified in a felony before 1891, the maxi-
mum is 7 years. The maximum statutory term of impris-
onment is 2 years, but is unlimited in the case of
Common Law offences.
An appeal from the Central or Circuit Criminal
Court is taken to the Court of Criminal Appeal. Unlike
England, only one judgment may be given. If a Certi-
ficate for Leave to Appeal is refused by the trial Judge,
the appellate Court will normally grant it if a question
of law is involved or if the trial was unsatisfactory. The
hearing is based on the stenographer's note of the
hearing. The Court of Criminal Appeal may refuse the
application, or affirm the conviction, or quash the
conviction either wholly or by ordering a retrial.
Mr. Geoffrey Bing, Q.C., C.M.G., former Attorney-
General of Ghana, delivered a lecture on Sunday after-
noon, April 28, on "Law Reporting in the Irish context".
He emphasised that a lawyer may well know of the
existence of some case which is similar to the one with
which he is engaged, but he has no means of obtaining
the appropriate judgment. Writers of textbooks cannot
bring them up to date if they have not access to the
most recently-reported cases.
The present indexing system in England was devised
in 1951 by Mr. Raoul Colinvaux. The Red Index
principle is now well established in England and should
be extended to Ireland. From the early nineteenth
century, there are excellent sets of Irish Law Reports
available, but their real significance in modern condi-
tions has not yet been estimated. In England, it has
proved a commercial success to reprint the 178 volumes
of old English Reports up to 1865.
Irish Statute Law is unsatisfactory insofar as rela-
tively little consolidation appears to have been done
since 1922, and several annual volumes of statutes may
have to be examined in order to determine the current
law. One must also take into account the Irish Consti-
tution of 1937, which, as the supreme law, has implicitly
repealed many old statutes. Sometimes the words of a
statute are unintelligible unless one knows the meaning
the Courts have placed upon a particular phrase, which
can be learnt from law dictionaries. Past cases, how-
ever, have to be treated with respect and reserve, as
subsequent statutes may have amended the decisions.
The lecturer then compared the history of law report-
ing in England with that in Ireland. In November
1852, under the inspiration of the Church of Ireland
Bishop of Limerick, Dr. Graves, a learned commission
was established, charged with superintending and carry-
ing into effect the transcriptions and translation of the
ancient laws of Ireland—a work which was published in
two volumes by Professor Neilson and the Rev. Thadeus
O'Mahony in 1869. In trying to establish the system
of English Law Reporting in Ireland, Sir John Davies
found out that Ancient Irish Law was based upon
generally acceptable and authorised commentaries. His
II Reports were written in Norman French in 1615, but
the English edition was only published in Dublin in
1767. Finlay's "Digested Index to all Irish Reported
Cases in Law and Equity" followed in 1818. Ridgway
collaborated with Schoales in the only volume of "Irish
Term Reports" from 1793 to 1795. In Ireland, a
Council based on the English model began supervising
law reporting in 1867. These had been preceded by the
series known as "Irish Law Reports" (1838-49) and
"Irish Equity Reports" (1838-49) to be followed by the
series of "Irish Common Law Reports" (1849-66), and
"Irish Chancery Reports" (1849-66)—a total of 60
volumes. Judgments under the Irish Criminal Law-
Procedure Act" were only published in 1903. After 1867,
the Council of Law Reporting appointed editors and
reporters. The 32 volumes of "Law Reports (Ireland)"
(1878-93) were published indirectly by Ponsonby on
behalf of Council but from 1894 the Council took full
responsibility with the modern series of "Irish Reports".
The Council of Law Reporting for Northern Ireland
started publishing the "Northern Ireland Law Reports"
from 1925. The time has, therefore, come to consider
proposals for the general improvement of Irish law
reporting. An English expert has recently stated that
the standard of headnotes in the Irish Reports was
particularly high. Fortunately the Irish reporter wastes
little time on counsel's argument.
The main problem is which Irish cases should be
reported and which not. Inevitably some cases which at
the time were unimportant may become important later.
[Editorial Note : The lecturer suggests that four vol-
umes of unreported cases would be sufficient, but it
would seem that, if it were to be complete, at least ten
volumes would be required.] Another difficulty is the
length of time that arises between the date of the
judgment and its publication, which is often due to
delay in revision on the Judge's part. As Ireland has
had written Constitutions since 1922, many cases
dealing with the interpretation of written Constitutions
have great persuasive effect outside Ireland; there were
some great Judges like Chief Baron Palles. Unfortu-
nately the modern Irish Law Reports lack a compre-
hensive index : they contain much law and much truth
but it is drowned in a sea of words. The new Index
should be based on the pattern of the English Red
Index, and it should be brought up to date from time
to time; all cases in it should be indexed on an all-
Ireland basis.
Apart from indexing, it would be essential to have
some form of immediate reporting, such as is now
available in the London
Times.
The English Law
Reporting Committee in 1940 reported that the majority
of cases were dictated, but not read by Judges. Prof.
Goodhart suggested that official shorthand writers
should be attached to all Courts to transcribe all judg-
ments, which would be revised by Judges within a week.
The judgments could then be returned to a central
office of the Law Courts and should be available at a
reasonable fee. The most practical step would be to
provide a service by which cases are reported with
sufficient authority to permit them to be accepted by
Judges. Obviously such a scheme would require side
support from the legal profession, as the newspaper
would have to go to the expense of appointing a full-
time editor and many reporters from the Bar. Apart
from that, Irish and English practitioners have always
217