The Gazette 1967/71

that the system of appointment to the Bench pre scribed by our constitution was an undesirable one. "The position is that the Government nominates a member of the legal profession, who is, in turn, appointed by the President. I do not believe that it should be at the discretion of a politically- appointed body to appoint members of the judiciary. I believe that it is an unhealthy system which could be manipulated by an unscrupulous government to such an extent that we would have a judiciary which would merely be an exten sion of a particular political party." VIOLENCE ON INCREASE In an interview published in the December 10th issue of a Swiss newspaper, La Tribune de Geneve, Mr. Sean MacBride declares that certain governments not only tolerate but encourage brutality. Mr. MacBride has recently retired as secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists, which has its seat in Geneva. In the interview, Mr. MacBride says that the past three years have seen a considerable escala tion of violence. "In Brazil and Greece, torture has become commonplace. It is used not only to extort confessions but to terrorise the opposition. They, in their turn, are pushed into reacting just as violently, and thus we have all these plane hijackings and kidnapping of diplomats which are contraventions of human rights. "Youth is losing faith in the sense of moral responsibility of its elders". Mr. MacBride proposes three courses of action to enable the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 to be applied. The first would be to increase the number of courts, modelled on the Strasbourg institution, where not only States but also individuals could have grievances heard. The second would set up an international judi cial authority which would hear cases alleged to have contravened the Hague and Geneva Con ventions, and the Convention on Genocide. The third would be the establishment of a high commissioner of human rights whose main role would be to help members of the United Nations to activate the principles of the 1948 declaration. 170

in the Physics Theatre at Earlsfort Terrace, Dub lin, last night. When a vacancy arose, he said, the Bar Council, the Incorporated Law Society and the Chief Justice should be enabled to submit three names each for the post which would go, preferably, to the person whose name was most mentioned. In this way the Government would not be-deprived of its power of decision, but neither would law yers, regarded as being at the top of their pro fession, be passed over. Mr. MacBride said there was a danger under the present system that the most competent law yers might be passed over because the Govern ment would naturally prefer to put in its own supporters. Earlier the Minister for Justice, Mr. O'Malley, had replied to criticism by the Society's Auditor, Mr. Colm Alien, of the present system of selecting judges. Mr. O'Malley asked were we quite sure that any other sponsors or nominators would be purer, more free from bias, more responsive to the feelings of the public than the Government. Were they quite sure that we would get better judges if people nominated to the bench had to run the gauntlet of a public inquisition? Were they likely to get the best brains at the Bar to accept that? On legal aid, Mr. O'Malley said that, much as he would like to do so, he could not at the present time at all events bring in a scheme of legal aid in civil cases. He could not do so because the taxpayers' re sources were limited and could not provide all at once for everything they would like to provide. Mr. Alien, speaking on "Justice and the Rule of Law," had said: "The first guideline laid down for a fair trial is that the judge should be absolute ly independent of the Government. This is re garded as an essential requirement for justice under the rule of law. In agreeing wholeheartedly with this principle, one is forced to admit that under the system operating in this country at the present time this is not clearly seen to be so. "While not wishing to criticise any of the judi ciary, who were rightly held in the highest esteem by the legal profession and, indeed, by the gen eral public, for their integrity, it had to be said