The Gazette 1980

GAZETTE

APRIL 1980

BOOK REVIEWS

A Report on the Law and Procedures regarding the Prosecution and Disposal of Young Offenders. By Denis C. Mitchell. The Stationery Office, Price £1.00. This report by Mr. Denis Mitchell was commissioned by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and was published in October 1977. It is a most useful reference book for practitioners as it clearly sets out the manner in which the Courts may deal with children, from the ages of seven to fifteen; young persons from the ages of fifteen to seventeen and finally juvenile offenders from the ages of seventeen to twenty-one. The Children's Act 1908 together with the Children Act 1941 are the main Statutes in which most of the law is contained. But certainly the 1908 Act covers so many pther matters relating to children and young persons that l } is a most unwieldly Statute to come to grips with and indeed to find the particular information one requires from it. The author manages to condense a lot of relevant information into this brief manual. On the age of criminal responsibility, we are told that the Kennedy Report 1970 recommended that the age of criminal responsibility should be increased from seven years to twelve. In Great Britain the Children and Young Persons Act 1969 raised the age to fourteen except in homicide cases. In Ireland children between the ages of seven and fourteen, that is under fifteen, are presumed incapable of crime (Doli incapax) but this is a rebuttable presumption. The issue is even more confused by the fact that the 1908 Act, Section 131, as amended by the 1941 Act, Section 29 (1), defines a child as a person under fifteen, but as far as principles of responsibility are concerned, one is dealing with the seven to fourteen age group. Mr. Mitchell points out that as the 1941 Act raised the legal age of a child to fifteen the doli incapax Presumption should now apply to seven to fifteen year olds. Unfortunately it appears that lawyers in Ireland do not very often argue the issue of doli incapax when representing this age group. Persons under fifteen cannot be imprisoned and indeed there has been case law in Ireland on that subject, but they may however be sent to an institution not being a Prison. The section of the book dealing with options open to the Court for seven to fifteen year olds gives a brief explanation of each method. If quotes from the Kennedy Report that the "fit person order" whereby the Court is empowered to commit a child to the care of a relative or friend had not at least in 1970 been used by the Children c ou rt for many years. One wonders if in the following seven years this procedure has been used more often, but u nfortunately no comment is made by the author. Young persons, that is those between the ages of fifteen a nd seventeen can be imprisoned and in certain circum- stances sent to St. Patrick's Institution. Juvenile offenders, those between seventeen and twenty-one, may he sent to St. Patrick's instead of prison, and in extreme cases a sixteen year old may be sent to St. Patrick's. Shanganagh Castle and Loughan House are institutions for males of this group also, but it should be noted that a

female offender between seventeen and twenty-one if she is to be sent for a custodial sentence must be imprisoned in Mountjoy or Limerick prisons. I would recommend that this report should be read by lawyers, social workers and probation officers dealing with young persons and the law, as it concisely and clearly sets out the powers and limitations of the Court. My only criticism would be that I would like to have heard more from the author about possible areas of reform and about how the law operates in practice in the Courts, but perhaps that is not what he was commissioned to do. Barbara Hussey J.C.W. Wylie — Irish Conveyancing Law. Professional Books Limited 1978. This is a twin volume to Irish Land Law written by the same learned Author (who is reader in law at University College, Cardiff) and again with the Hon. Mr. Justice Kenny, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ireland acting as Consultant Editor. Irish Conveyancing Law deals comprehensively, but in a most readable manner, with the Law and Practice of Conveyancing in Ireland. It is so set out that each page has copious footnotes giving legal authority for the statements and conclusions reached in the text. It is therefore both casual reading for the Practitioner anxious to up-date (or re-educate) himself, as well as an invaluable reference (with the relevant Authorities readily available) in the event of pending of threatened legal strife arising in the course of any conveyancing transaction. This book deals comprehensively with both The Law Society's Contract for Sale and Requisitions on Title and sets out in detail the legal position of Vendor and Purchaser and their respective Solicitors. The thorny question of pre Contract Requisitions, and their validity (as well as their suitability) in the Republic of Ireland, is examined and discussed. The Book has a total of 921 pages (including an invaluable Index) and to my mind is essential reading for the Conveyancing Preacitioner, experienced or otherwise. A comprehensive, knowledge of Conveyancing Law and Practice is generally obtained from text books and lectures in the first instance and subsequently from experience in practice. Very often by the time a Practitioner becomes an experienced Conveyancer, the theory is long forgotten. Also legislation is enacted from time to time effecting material changes in the law and practice of Conveyancing. This book codifies both the existing theory and practice of Conveyancing in Ireland and in so doing provides an invaluable and necessary aid to those Solicitors who would regard themselves as experienced Conveyancers while at the same time giving the less experienced members of the profession the benefits of experience gained by others in the Practice of the Law of Conveyancing.

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