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GAZETTE
DECEMBER 1995
Reporting the Words of the High Priests
by Dr. Eamonn G. Hall
Judges have an unique influence
on Irish life. One learned jurist
noted that the "earliest judge
was a ruler who uttered the
divine command and was king
and priest combined". Professor
Robert Heuston
, the doyen of
judicial biographers considered
that the judge "belongs to a
priesthood for ever". To-day, of
course, the word "priest"
includes a priestess - the female
judges of our courts.
May judges leave literary legacies to
posterity. Barristers and others are
paid to report the decisions of the
judges oflhe Superior Courts to
ensure the survival of the doctrine of
precedent.
Regular law reporting in Ireland can
be traced back to 1615, to the reports
of Sir
John Davies,
then Attorney
General for Ireland. Little was
published subsequently until the
middle of the eighteenth century. But
many early series of reports were
inaccurate. Chief
Baron Pollock
remarked about Espinasse's Reports:
"Mr. Espinasse was deaf. He heard
one half of a case and reported the
other." In
Hodgins
v
Hanrock
(1845)
M & W 120 at 123, the same Chief
Baron proclaimed "You may find
I authority in the modern reports for
many propositions that are not law".
In the previous century, Chief Justice
Holt ejaculated: "See the
, inconveniences of these scrambling
reports: they will make us appear to
posterity for a parcel of blockheads."
[Slater v May
(1704) Ld. Ray m. 1071
at 10721.
The Incorporated Council of Law
Reporting for Ireland ("the Law
Photographed at the recent launch of The Irish Digest 1989 - 1993 at the King's Inns are l-r:
julitta Clancy, editor and compiler; Chief justice Liam Hamilton; Carroll Moran, Editor, The Irish
Reporting and Michael McDowell, SC, TD, Chairman of the Law Reporting
Council.
Reporting Council") is a body charged
with reporting the decisions of the
judges of the Superior Courts in
Ireland. The Law Reporting Council is
now in its 129th year of continuous
service. A formal council was
established in 1866. The Solicitor-
General for Ireland, Sir.
H.E.
Chatterton,
the eldest son of a Cork
solicitor, played a leading role in
establishing the Council and chaired
the early meetings.
The Law Reporting Council may be
described as a joint venture between
members of the judiciary, the
Attorney General, the Inner Bar
(Senior Counsel) the Outer Bar
(Junior Counsel) members of the Law
Society, and the Department of
Justice. Many solicitors have played a
significant role as members of the
Council. In recent times these include
Mr.
John F. Buckley,
Mr.
Peter
Prentice,
Mr.
Fergus Armstrong,
Mr.
M. Tyrrell,
Mr.
William Earlev,
Mr.
Michael V. O'Mahony,
Mr.
Michael
Staines,
Mr.
Ken Murphy,
Director
General and Mr.
Terence McCrann.
The writer, has also been associated
with the Council for some time. The
present chairman is Mr.
Michael
McDowell,
S.C., T.D. and the Editor
of the Reports is Mr.
Carroll Moran,
B.L. The Law Reporting Council
publishes
The Irish Reports,
digests of
cases and other legal publications.
One of the most scathing attacks on
The Irish Reports
emanated from Lord
Justice Christian, a most unusual man
who had "a belief in his own
superiority both in conscientiousness
and intellect" which often brought him
into conflict with his brother judges.
The Lord Justice Christian in
The Irish
Law Times and Solicitors' Journal
(1887)
11 ILT SJ 358 noted that
The
Irish Reports
were "utter nonsense",
that the pages were filled with "dry,
bald, disjointed twaddle" and that "this
miserable little pamphlet" was replete
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