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GAZETTE
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
primary users of that system and on the size, structure
and nature of the legal profession in Ireland. An inquiry
of this nature would enable us, according to Campbell, to
attend to the following relevant questions: "First, are
computer systems needed and are computer applications
likely to be advantageous? . . . Second, if it is the case
that
some
lawyers or legal firms could benefit from (or
perhaps urgently need) computer systems or legal
informational retrieval systems can we determine what
services would be attractive and viable?"
Conclusion:
1. It is hoped that interest will be generated amongst
the legal profession in computer applications to law by
the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland and by the local
Bar Associations and that members of learned societies
such as the Society of Young Solicitors and the Irish
Society for European Law will devote some of their time
to this area.
2. It is also hoped that the Incorporated Law Society
of Ireland will set up a Committee to study computer
applications to law and related topics and to report on
their findings to the members of the Incorporated Law
Society from time to time or, at least, that a group of
lawyers independently establish a Society concerning this
whole matter. It is hoped also that the Law Society co-
operates with other bodies who are interested in this area.
For example, the inclusion of Irish tax law statutes in a
computer-based retrieval system surely would be of
interest to both lawyers and accountants.
3. It is hoped that a course in computer applications to
law will be included in the new system of legal education
which the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland proposes to
commence in 1978/79. Of course, law retrieval is merely
one example of what computers can do for lawyers. There
are other subsidiary applications — for example,
accounting or drafting from precedents in a computer.
4. It is hoped that the Government will establish a
Committee to examine this area in all its aspects.
There is much to be done but one wonders how much
more time will pass before the potential users of a legal
information retrieval system in the Republic of Ireland
take up the challenge.
Footnotes
1. "Does the law need a technical revolution?" in Rocky Mountain Law
Review 1946, at p. 378, cited in
Legal Decisions and Information
Systems
by Jon Bing and Trygve Harvold (Universitetsforlaget,
Oslo, 1977), at p.60. Bing and Harvold's book is the most up-to-
date work on legal information retrieval. A reference hereafter to:
Bing and Harvold: constitutes a reference to that book.
2.
Computers for Lawyers
by William Aitken, Colin M. Campbell
and Richard S. Morgan (A Report to the Scottish Legal Computer
Research Trust November 1972) at p.l. A reference hereafter to:
Aitken, Campbell and Morgan: consitiutes a reference to that
Report.
3. Bing and Harvold, pp. 61-62.
4. See
Computers and the
Low (1973) by Colin Tapper, pp. 176-182
for a summary of the Oxford Experiments.
5. "Case Law and Computers" by Colin Tapper,
Computers and
Law,
No. 4, May 1975, p. 7.
6. See Bing and Harvold, Chapters 4 to 7 inclusive, for a survey of
the developments in North America and Europe.
7. See "System for Legal Document Retrieval in the European
Economic Community" by Alan Brakefield and Norman Price,
Computers and Law,
No. 5. August 1975, pp. 7-8, and
"Computerised Legal Documentation System of the European
Communities",
Computers and Law,
No. 7. February 1976, pp. 2-
128
8. Sec
CREDOC
by William Aitken (A Report to the Scottish Legal
Computer Research Trust, 1972) for a detailed study of the
CREDOC system. See Aitken, Campbell and Morgan, pp. 18-25,
for an outline of the CREDOC system.
9. Bing and Harvold, at p 50.
10. Bing and Harvold, at p. 51.
11. Bing and Harvold, pp. 52-53.
12. Bing and Harvold, at p. 53.
13. Bing and Harvold, at p. 225.
14. Bing and Harvold, p. 226.
15.
Electronic Legal Retrieval
by Philip Slayton, Information
Canada, 1974. See "Practical Benefits of the Computer for
Lawyers": The Proceedings of a Conference at the University of
Warwick, Coventry, September 1976: "Designing Datum II" by
Ejan Mackaay, pp. 12-20, at pp. 12-13 for a critique of the
Slayton Report where Mackaay states that "The [Slayton]
Report itself has been criticised virtually unanimously for the
rather cursory evidence from which these drastic conclusions are
drawn."
16.
Operation Compulex
(1972). Information Needs for the
Practising Lawyer. Department of Justice, Ottawa, summarised
in Aitken, Campbell and Morgan, pp. 117-121.
17. Aitken, Campbell and Morgan at p. 12. For a brief example of
the system in operation see "Computers and Lawyers — a
Personal View", by Nicolas Bellord
New Law Journal,
(24th
October 1974) pp. 990-1.
18. See "Society for Computers
SL
Law Limited. Evidence submitted
to The Royal Commission on Legal Services",
Computers and
Law,
No. 11. January 1977, pp. 2-6 for a recent account of the
present computer applications to law in the United Kingdom.
19» See "Practical Benefits of the Computers for Lawyers", The
Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Warwick,
Coventry, September 1976. "Lawyers' Needs" by Professor
Colin Campbell, pp. 2-5
passim
on which this third section is
based.
WHITE PAPER ON N.I. COURT REFORMS
"Major reform to the law governing the organisation and
jurisdiction of the courts in Northern Ireland is long
overdue", says a White Paper entitled "Courts in
Northern Ireland — the Future Pattern".
The main proposals in the White Paper are:
* Creation of a reconstituted Supreme Court of
Judicature in Northern Ireland;
* Creation of new Crown Courts to which will be
transferred criminal cases in indictment, presently dealt
with by Assize and County Courts;
* Creation of a new Family Division within the High
Court;
* Merging the present Courts of Appeal and Criminal
Appeal into a single new Court of Appeal;
* Merging of the administrative staffs of each of the three
tiers of the present judicial structure into a single
integrated service;
* Revision of territorial boundaries so as to relate them
to local government boundaries; and
* Appointment of Circuit Registrars.
The U.K. Government intends to introduce, as soon as
is practicable, appropriate legislation to implement the
changes. But detailed aspects of the general administrative
reorganisation — particularly in relation to court staffing
and the territorial redistribution of courts and of court
offices — are still the subject of consultation with interested
parties.
The running costs of the new Court Service are not
expected to exceed present running costs. All members of
the Judiciary will continue to be appointed by the Queen on
the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor, and their
independence from executive interference in the discharge
of their judicial functions will be strictly preserved.