The Gazette 1949-1952

(Acquisition) Acts and if it is proposed to reduce such fees and thereby encourage the building of more houses. Mr. Smith : I am not empowered by the Small Dwellings Acquisition Acts to authorise a scale of fees to be charged by solicitors o f local authorities for their services. My Department has, however, been in consultation with the Incorporated Law Society with a view to securing modification of such fees in appropriate cases. The Incorporated Law Society is considering the matter and I under­ stand that they hope to be in a position shortly to express the detailed views o f the profession. In the meantime certain modifications o f fees have been made in particular cases. Mr. O’H ara: Is the Minister aware that the solicitors referred to are already in the employment of the various County Councils and are in receipt of salaries and would he not consider making representations to the Incorporated Law Society with a view to preventing this overcharging on the part o f solicitors ? Mr. Smith : I thought I told the Deputy I was in fact in consultation with the Incorporated Law Society. Mr. Hickey : I f a local authority is paying a a salary to their legal adviser and an individual takes a property from that particular local authority, is it competent for the solicitor who is the legal adviser to the local authority to do the necessary legal work ? An Ceann Comhairle : That is a separate question. Mr. Smith : I think it is a different kind o f case from the one referred to by Deputy O’Hara. He is thinking in terms of small farmers who would apply under the Act. A VISIT TO THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION ( continued) On Monday morning, 17th September, 1951, the first session of the General Meeting o f the American Bar Association opened and the programme continued right through until the following Saturday, six days as opposed to three during Chief Justice Kennedy’s 1928 visit. Four thousand, two hundred lawyers registered for the week. Hear Chief Justice Kennedy once again : “ The American Bar Association is far from being a merely convivial or social gathering of professional .brethren, though the foreign guest may be pardoned for harking back with some enthusiasm to that side o f its programme which has made for him a brilliant and happy memory. In the crowded

ranks o f the Association are included numbers of men of great learning and scholarship, men o f wide and varied experience, professional, judicial, and educational, and men in touch with every phase o f the national life, o f men intensely concerned with the national problems, and with the part played by the legal profession in public affairs and full o f eager anxiety that the profession shall fill worthily the big public role which belongs to it by virtue of its special training and experience. Throughout the year many committees and com­ missions are engaged, under the authority o f the Association, upon the examination o f innumerable current problems, drafting Bills, framing proposals and forming and stating opinion. The reports o f these many-sided activities are offered to the Annual Convention and considered, and, in many cases, important action is taken upon them. I cannot, within the compass o f a short article like this, attempt to survey all the subjects.” The programme was divided into six meetings o f the General Assembly and approximately fifty committee meetings during the course of the week. The documentation included a miniature newspaper published daily. I set out hereunder just a few o f the many items discussed at committees or on which papers were delivered during the week. “ Public Relations and Press Releases ; Routine Work o f Bar Association Offices ; How to Maintain and Increase Membership in Voluntary Associations •—Fund Raising Ideas ; Co-ordination of Local Bar Associations with State Associations ; Legal Institutes ; Association Publications and Bulletins f Proposed Commercial Code; Government Control o f Business ; Problems o f the Business Lawyer ; Food, Drug and Cosmetic L aw ; Discussion of Uniform State Food, Drug and Cosmetic Laws ; Discussion o f International Uniformity in Food, Drug and Cosmetic Law between United Kingdom, Canada and United States; Discussion o f Major Drug Law Problems; Report on Proposed Uniform Commercial Code ; The Protection of Individual Rights and Government Security in time of stress ; Aviation Criminal L aw ; International Criminal Law ; Medico-Legal Examiners A c t ; Membership ; Military and Naval Justice; Motion Pictures, Radio Broadcasting and Comics in relation to the Administration of Justice ; Nominating Committee; Police Training and-Administration ; Problems o f Juvenile Delinquency; Procedure, Prosecution and Defence ; Scope and Program ; Sentencing, Probation and Parole; Traffic and Magistrate Courts ; The Responsibility of the Press, Radio and Television for Fair Criminal Trials.” In addition papers were read and discussion ensued on. Municipal Law, Tax Law, Insurance