The Gazette 1991

april

1991

g a z e t t e

first published in 1980, and is now in its second edition. His Roman Law publications include Princeps Judex (Weimar 1957), and Roman Litigation (Oxford, 1965). He has added much more to the corpus of Irish legal literature, and his retirement from active politics and return to full-time academic life held the promise of more books and many learned articles. He had taken leave of absence in the first term of the cu r r ent academic session to complete work on a major new book entitled " We s t e r n Legal Thought "; academic friends and colleagues must ensure publication of this work as a posthumous tribute to a great Irish scholar. He wore his own distinction lightly and was the most congenial and affable of men who was ever ready to help and encourage his junior colleagues to publish the f r u i ts of their research. He established an impressive rapport with his students and was prepared to listen to their various woes and tribulations wi th sympathy and understanding without sacrificing t he high s t anda r ds wh i ch characterised his academic life. I knew John Kelly for more than twenty years as a colleague and I was privileged to have numbered him among my f r i ends. The members of the Law Faculty of University College express their sincere condolences to his widow, Delphine, his son Nicholas who not so long ago was one of our students, and the other members of his family. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis. J.C.B.

John John Kelly's untimely death has deprived Irish academic life in general, and the Faculty of Law at Un i ve r s i ty College Dublin in particular, of a gifted and distin- guished legal scholar whose loss will be keenly felt by those who knew him as a generous and supportive colleague. John was appointed to the Chair of Ju r i sp r udence and Roman Law in University College Dublin in 1965 and during his long tenure of that office he was in the front rank of academic lawyers in this and the ne i ghbou r i ng island, and in mainland Europe. Indeed, w i th respect to his published work in t he field of Roman Law, his scholarly reputation knew no geographical boundaries but was worldwide. Like other distinguished lawyers of his generation he did not read law for his primary degree but pursued a brilliant undergraduate career in classics, obtaining first class honours In his final degree examination. His Professor of Latin, among others, hoped that he would pursue an academic career in the Faculty of Arts in University College but this was not to be. He was awarded a Travelling Studentship by the National University in 1953 which took him to the renowned German University of Heidelberg. There his doctoral research which obtained for him a Dr. Jur. was conducted in the field of Roman Law which was to remain one of his abiding interests throughout his academic life. On his return to Ireland he pursued his legal studies for the Irish Bar to which he was called in 1957. It was perhaps inevitable, however, that someone of his ability, and w i th his interests, should return to the academic world which he did to Oxford where he obtained a B. Litt. in 1960 and an M.A. in 1961. He was a Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Trinity College Oxford from 1961 until his return to Dublin in 1965. Shortly after his return to Dublin he succeeded William Finlay as Dean of the Faculty of Law in University College. His tenure as

Kelly Dean coincided w i th a policy change in the Faculty of Law which had been initiated by his prede- cessor as Dean, William Finlay, which saw part-time teachers who were almost all distinguished practitioners being replaced by full- time academics. John Kelly's reputation as a teacher and scholar was to make University College Dublin an attractive goal for aspirant young academics of law. The transition to a Law School staffed by full-time academics took some time however and dis- tinguished practitioners continued to teach in the Law School. A measure of the quality of such part-timers during John's period as Dean is that three of them became judges of the High Court and one a judge of the Supreme Court. Not least of his contributions to the Law School in University College was his part in the acquisi- tion of The Irish Jurist on the death of its then proprietor and editor Vincent Delany. During John's editorship of the Jurist his own standing as a Roman lawyer enabled him to commission articles from leading Roman lawyers in Europe and this guaranteed the international appeal of the Jurist. It continues to enjoy the international r epu t a t i on established during John's editorship under its current editor, Professor W.N. Osborough, who worked closely wi th John in t he early days of University College's stewardship of the Jurist. It has provided law teachers in University College and elsewhere in this jurisdiction wi th an important outlet for the publication of learned articles on different aspects of Irish law and a heavy debt is owed by the Irish legal community to John Kelly for his work on, and com- mitment to, the Jurist. Law as an academic discipline in Ireland had suffered because of the dearth of indigenous legal materials and John's seminal work Funda- mental Rights in the Irish Law and Constitution, published in 1961, set a salutary example for Irish law teachers to follow. His magnum opus on the Irish Constitution was

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