The Gazette 1977

JULY

GAZETTE

(4) The Common Law of Ireland was not identical with, but separate from the Common Law of England. See Byrne v. Ireland (1972) I.R. (5) The Irish Constitution of 1937, which is the Fundamental Law of the land, supplanting all Statutes, is inaccurately described in 4 lines. The importance of Irish constitutional case law could have been stressed. (6) No distinction is made between the Irish Jurist (1935- 65), which contained reported cases, and the present Irish Jurist from 1966, which is an academic legal journal of a high standard. (7) The earlier Irish named Reports, prior to the Irish Law Reports (1839) are barely mentioned. (8) It is blandly stated that there is no legal literature of any substance on Irish law reports, and law reporting: see Geoffrey Bing's lecture to the Society of Young Solicitors. (9) The list of Irish official publications is incomplete. (10) Delany's work on Chief Baron Palles, which contains a list of Irish judges from 1878 to 1921, should have been included amongst legal bibliographies. condition should be implied in the contract that the premises are reasonably fit for that particular purpose. (iii) In so far as injury to persons or property results from defects in premises, vendors and lessors should owe a duty to take reasonable care to see that persons who might be affected by these defects are not injured in their person or in their property by the defects. However, for the vendor or lessor to be bound, such defects must have been known to him, and must exist at the time of the sale or lease. (iv) Breach of any duty imposed by the legislation will give the purchaser/lessee a right to damages. (v) The rights given under the new legislation should be in addition to any other common lawrights which the purchaser/lessee might have. The new law should ensure that the proposed statutory obligations are mandatory ones, incapable of being excluded by contract. The working paper also suggests that these reforms should be reinforced by a scheme that would ensure the technical ability and the financial stability of builders. This, however, it suggests could be achieved by a Registration Scheme which need not be statutory in form. Many precedents for such schemes exist in other countries and there is also the recently proposed scheme announced by the Department of Local Government and the C.I.F. (Construction Industry Federation) which, however, the Commission does not recommend. Comments on the working paper are invited by 1 November, 1977. Copies of the working paper may be obtained from The Law Reform Commission, River House, Chancery Street, Dublin, 7, or W. King Limited, Law Stationers, 18 Eustace Street, Dublin, 2. Price £1.50 Net.

Norman of the Institute then deals with processes of mechanization such as telex, computers, union catalogues, the MARC system of the Library of Congress and subject analysis. The detailed Index of Works Cited alphabetically comprises no less than 51 pages. It will thus be seen that the needs of the English and Scots Law Librarians have been magnificently served by this volume. On the whole, Jill Mclvor has seen to it that, in the relevant places, Northern Ireland gets its fair share of mention, save that the invaluable monthly unreported judgments of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting in Northern Ireland, published with an Index in blue covers continuously since 1970, do not appear to have been mentioned. The same cannot be said about the Republic of Ireland, because, as far as is known, the text was not submitted to any law librarian here. Inter alia, mention must be make of the following:— (1) Delany's Administration of Justice in Ireland almost in its 5th edition, is not even mentioned. (2) It is stated at page 33, that in the Republic of Ireland, the function of the National Library is performed by Trinity College. This will hardly please the hard working staff of the National Library. (3) One would not expect our Society with its 1,700 members to have the same library space as the English Law Society with its 20,000 members. The working paper, in reviewing the present law relating to builders, vendors and lessors of premises, highlights the absence of legal protection for purchasers and lessees. House purchasers in making what is commonly referred to as v *the longest payment of their lives" are inadequately protected by the law as it now stands. Purchasers and hirers of goods receive a measure of legal protection in the Sale of Goods Act 1893 and the Hire Purchase Acts 1946-60, but the purchasers or lessees of land (including houses) have little or no such protection. For them the legal rule is expressed in the maxim: caveat emptor— let the buyer beware. The house purchaser has to look for himself. This is most vividly expressed by the judicial dictum that there is no law against letting or Selling a "tumbledown house". The Law Reform Commission takes the view that house purchasers (whether full owners or lessees) should get more protection from the law and to this end it has prepared for discussion a working paper proposing a general scheme of new legislation to improve their lot in several ways, the most important of which are: (i) Any person who undertakes building work should owe a duty to see that the work is done in a good and workmanlike (or professional) manner and with proper materials. Where the premises consist of a dwelling, the builder should have a legal duty to ensure that they will be reasonably fit for habitation. It is to be noted that these duties will also be imposed on the participating financial "backers" of the builder. (ii) Where a person sells or leases premises in the course of business and where the buyer/lessee makes known the purpose for which he wants the premises, a 118 The law relating to the Liability of Builders, Vendors and Lessors for the Quality and Fitness of Premises

These are only the most important omissions. The main work can be recommended as a model of its kind, and anyone who wishes to learn anything about Law Librarianship cannot afford to be without it. The Law Reform Commission (Working Paper No. 1-1977)