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GAZETTE
APRIL 1985
BOOK REVIEWS
The Law of Stamp Duties by Michael O'Connor and
Patrick S. Cahill. The Institute of Taxation. £13.00.
Stamp duties having been in the first instance imported
from the Continent, were already 200 years in operation
when consolidated in the Stamp Act, 1891. Perhaps it is
not surprising, therefore, that the first co-ordinated tax or
duty in the E.E.C. should have been a stamp duty —
Companies Capital Duty which was introduced here in
the Finance Act, 1983, in implementation of an E.E.C.
Directive.
For more than 30 years following 1891, English texts
provided guidance for practitioners here. However,
owing to the growing divergence down the years in the
laws applying to property and stamp duties in Ireland and
England, those text books have become somewhat
inadequate. The publication of this book fills a void that
has been growing.
The authors, practising solicitors, have approached
their subject in a way that makes it readily understandable
and readable. A glance at the table of contents shows at
once the wide range of the duties and the authors'
approach to their subject. The book is in seven parts and
each part has its own index to the contents of the
constituent chapters. There is, in addition, a detailed
index to the whole volume.
Part I is an introductory comment on aspects of the law
on property, contracts, beneficial ownership, trans-
mission of rights, and interests which arise in relation to
the duties. Students in particular will find this, as well as
the glossaries of instruments and technical terms, useful.
The succeeding part will go some way to giving the reader
a knowledge of the sources, categories and principles of a
collection of duties that superficially have, in many cases,
little in common and lack coherence. The mechanics and
procedural elements are treated separately and cover such
matters as assessment, adjudication, appeals and
repayments.
The remaining two-thirds of the volume is devoted to
the various charges to duty. The treatment of each head
of liability is individual and comprehensive. Many
examples are furnished to expand the text, citing relevant
cases. Conveyances, leases, settlements, mortgages and
other instruments are dealt with in this way. A separate
part is devoted to companies capital duty. The implica-
tions in stamp duties generally for companies in the area
of amalgamations, reconstructions, mortgages and inter-
company transfers are covered at length embracing
chargeability, exemptions and reliefs. For those
interested in matters fiscal and questions such as whether
stamp duties are consumer or capital taxes or both, the
final part is a reminder of the expanding scope of those
duties in recent years and their versatility.
The presentation and printing leave nothing to be
desired. The format is such that any developments which
take place can readily be incorporated in future editions.
In the first edition, which runs to some 300 pages, some
slips are inevitable. At page 258, an erring word-processor
has inserted a heading some paragraphs ahead of its
appropriate place.
There may, no doubt, be those who would like to see
further material included in the book. Some readers
might, for instance, like to have historical tables of the
rates of duty on conveyances on sale. I myself would
welcome a table of the statutes cited throughout the book.
A blank page might be included at the end of each chapter
to allow for the insertion of on-going notes. These,
however, are minor points in a work that was long
overdue.
In their introduction to Part I, the authors state that
"the aim of this work is to extract the working principles
of the legislation and case law and comment upon them
for practical purposes". This they have more than
achieved. The Institute and the authors are to be thanked
and congratulated for their industry and the results they
have achieved. This book deserves to be successful.
Published last year it is in effect up to date since this year's
Finance Bill contains only one section of general
application. It is an indispensible part of the equipment of
the busy practitioner.
•
George E. P. Johnston
Constitutional Law of Ireland by David Gwynn Morgan,
LL.M. (Lond)of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. The
Round Hall Press in association with Irish Academic Press.
214pp. (notes, tables and index 56pp). IR£22.50.
Professor Kelly in his preface to "The Irish Constitu-
tion" argues that the 1937 Constitution was "very largely
a re-bottling of wine most of which was by then quite old
and of familiar vintages". Mr. David Gwynn Morgan,
Lecturer in Law at University College Cork, in his book
"Constitutional Law in Ireland" writes on aspects of the
re-bottling of the wine but does not neglect the vintage
setting.
Students are sometimes of the view that constitutional
law only involves the logical and almost mechanical
application of clearly formulated legal norms of
inescapable authority as laid down in Bunreacht na
hEireann. There is much more to the study of constitu-
tional law. The author rightly emphasises that significant
aspects of constitutional law flow from Acts of the
Oireachtas and from judicial decisions. There is also the
question of conventions — the unwritten constitutional
rules.
On my first perusal of "Constitutional Law in Ireland",
I mused whether the title of the book was apt. The book
does not deal with the entire range of Irish constitutional
law. However, on a closer examination the author makes
it clear that the book only deals with the institutions of
government established by Bunreacht na hEireann. Thus,
the book only deals with the "structure, composition,
functions and inter-relationships of the principal organs
of the state, viz. the Government, the Oireachtas and the
Courts".
Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816 that
"Some men look at constitutions with sancti-
monious reverence and deem them to be like the ark
of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They
ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wi'sdom
more than human and suppose what they did to be
beyond amendment. . . ."
The author does not look at Bunreacht na hEireann
with sanctimonious reverence. However, this book, as he
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