The Gazette 1980

THE INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND

No.3

Vol. 74

April 1980

Law Reform

Now!

was lost on the dissolution of the Oireachtas in 1977 but that Bill had only been introduced in 1977. ' The progress of Bills through the Oireachtas is too stately, except when some crusading zeal seizes it as in the case of the illconsidered Family Home Protecti~n Act - a piece of window dressing which dodged the issue of community property in marriage. Who could blame the Department of Justice for working at a leisurely pace in drafting Bills which may merely go to make up a back-log of unattended pending legislation? We badly need the "special Committee of the house' system to be used more frequently to deal with Bills which are not controversial in party political terms and can be truly considered "Law Reform" Bills. Such Bills as come from the La~ Reform Commission should be handled by such Comrruttees. The Statute La~ Revision Office is, it is under– ~tood, ~ntrusted with the task of codifying legislation m certam areas. It does not seem to have been successful in getting any of its products introduced in the Oireachtas for some time. . The ~aw Reform Commission is perhaps the greatest dlsappomtment, greatest because of the high hopes with which it ~as launched and be~a~se of the wealth of legal talent .av~able to ~e Commission. In its four years of operatIOn It has published seven Working Papers (three of which were completed within the first eighteen months of the Commission's operation), one Report (reports to the end of 1978 and 1979 are awaited) and nothing has been heard of the second topic referred to the Commission on the 3rd December 1975 - "the Law relating to the Domicile of Married Women". Such a pace of work is not acceptable. The methodology of the Commission is too - Continued on p. 6

The publication of the first Bill to be drafted by the Law Reform Commission prompts an enquiry as to the progress of Law Reform in the Republic in recent years. The result of any such enquiry will disappoint. A modern state must inevitably be hogtied by antiquated legislation. We need urgently a review of many aspects of our law - our Land Law and our Conveyancing Law (last comprehen~ively reviewed in 1881) are both out dated. The £1,000.00 awarded to a widow for mental distress under the Civil Liability Act, and the penalties laid down for various minor offences need to be brought into line with modern money values (and then indexed ?). Our Licensing Laws and Local Government Law should be codified. There are at present three primary sources of Statute Law Reform in operation in the State - the Departments of State, the Statute Law Revision Office and the Law Reform Commission. Of the Departments of State, it is the Department of Justice which is the most likely to generate reform of "Lawyers Law". How has it fared in recent years? Not well, for the Department seems not to have had a coherent programme of Law Reform since that prepared while the present Taoiseach was Minister in the early 1960's. Reports of the Committee on Court Practice and Procedure apparently lie unheeded on the shelves; only a small number of the recommendations contained in its many reports have been enacted into Law. Even the Bills which do emerge from the Department take an inordinate time from their inception to reach the Statute Book, only partly due to parliamentary delays. The Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Bill 1979 which passed through the Senate on the 6th May 1980 contained the proposals first announced by the then Minister for Justice in March 1970. Admittedly, an earlier Bill with similar provisions

Executive Editor: Seamus L. O'Kelly. Editorial Board: John F. Buckley, Charles R. M. Meredith, Michael V. O'Mahony, Maxwell Sweeney. Printed by the Leinster Leader Limited, Naas, Co. Kildare. The views expressed in this publication, save where otherwise indicated, are the views of the contributors and not necessarily the views of the Council of the Society. Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.