The Gazette 1981

SEPTEMBER 1981

GAZETTE

Book Review Introduction to Law in the Republic of Ireland by Richard H. Grimes, LL.B., M.A. and Patrick T. Horgan, LLB., LLM., Dublin: Wolfhound Press. 368pp. Paperback, £9.90 (inc. VAT); Hardback, £16.50(inc. VAT). The Authors are Solicitors. Mr. Grimes formerly a Law Lecturer at University College, Cork is now at Keele University. Mr. Horgan is currently a Statutory Law Lecturer at U.C.C. It requires great skill and knowledge to write a good elementary Law Book. It involves making accurate general statements about the law, and if you think this is easy, try doing it yourself. As one cannot assume that readers have any prior knowledge, it is necessary to explain everything and this makes the book tiresome to anyone who has a slight familiarity with the subject. Such books can be dull and this one is dull in places, although dullness is not its greatest fault. Effective writing for students calls for clear exposition of the subject, systematic arrangement, and a degree of grace and elegance. A student's book should have some visual impact and appeal. The information should be clearly and attractively presented on the page with appropriate headings, sub-headings, side-notes and footnotes. If this is done, the work is easier to read, easier to understand, easier to remember. The notes and references in this book which are absolutely essential to its educational purpose are not presented as footnotes, but are gathered together, grouped into chapters, at the end of the book. This method is guaranteed to exasperate, expecially in a rather long book. The notes themselves are useful and deserve better treatment. In favour of this work it can be said that it is fairly comprehensive, up to date, and specifically related to the law of the Irish Republic. Some chapters are better than others. There is a good short summary of the law and institutions of the E.E.C. The treatment of case law and precedent and legislation in Chapter 2 is well done and the Chapters on Tort, Welfare Law, and Company Law are good. The book would be useful as a handbook and introductory guide to a number of areas of Irish Law. In general, however, this is not an impressive work — there is much weak and confused writing and one suspects that the proof reading was carried out in great haste or altogether omitted. There are numerous (mostly verbal) howlers — "Borough Eagles" — "The Gambling Act 1845" — "Deasy's Act of 1869" — "Descent was traced from the Land Purchaser" — "famous contemporary legal positivists Austin, Kelsen and Hart". Lest it should be thought that I have been unduly severe, here is a quotation, not entirely untypical, from the summary at the conclusion of the Chapter on Constitutional Law — "That most of the Constitution has not been the subject of litigation is indicative of its largely descriptive nature and also of the traditional perception of law untouched by a documentary yardstick". All in all a disappointment — a missed opportunity, a great deal of work went into this book and it should have been much better. William Dundon.

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