The Gazette 1990

GAZETTE

A PRIL 1990

GAZETT INCORPORATE D LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND

In this Issue

Vol.84 No.5 June 1990

Viewpoint That the horrors of the Ceaucescu Regime should lead to the high- lighting of a serious lacuna in Irish Family Law is yet another example of what a small village our globe has become. The discovery of hundreds, if not thousands, of orphans languishing in institutions where most inadequate care was available has brought forth a wave of sympathy. A number of Irish couples have sought to adopt some of these unfortunate children and have, no doubt to their great surprise, discovered that Irish Law is seriously lacking in this area. "Foreign Adoptions" fall into two distinct categories. The first where the adoptive parents go through the formalities of an adoption in a foreign jurisdiction and comply fully with the requirements of that juris- diction. There are no formal means of recognition in Ireland for such adoptions. The other category is where the adoptive parents, perhaps due to the absence of any proper adoption procedures in some third world countries, arrange what can only be called an informal adoption and bring a child back to ireland. They will have extreme difficulty in having that adoption recognised in this jurisdiction. Even assuming that they meet the criteria of our Adoption Board and receive satis- factory reports from an appropriate Adoption Society or local authority, there would be serious difficulties in persuading the Board that the necessary consents have been obtained from the natural mother. As the Law Reform Commis- sion's recent Report on the Recog- nition of Foreign Adoption Decrees points out, even the first of these categories presents considerable difficulties. It might have been thought that it would be easy to draw up a list of "first world countries" whose adoption pro- cedures might have been assumed to be similar to ours. Unfortunately it is the position that some of these countries permit adoption in cir- cumstances which would not be in accordance with our legislation. Some permit unmarried persons to adopt. Some permit adults to be adopted. Others have no restriction

Viewpoint

159

on the adoption of legitimate children. It was for that reason that the Commission in its Report rec- ommended giving the Minister for Health power to designate individ- ual countries whose adoption orders would be recognised in Ireland. The Commission also recom- mended that the High Court be given jurisdiction to make a declar- ation that an applicant is or is not the adopted child of a named person by virtue of a foreign adoption. This would be in ease of persons adopted in a jurisdiction where some of its adoption rules might be similar to Irish ones but others differ. The Commission was not of course considering the more difficult problem of "Third World" adoptions where it is doubtful whether adoption procedures of a quality which either our Minister or our Courts would be likely to approve exist. Is there then to be no way in which adoptive parents can ensure the proper legal status of children whom they have, in all good faith, brought from a Third World country to Ireland? There are few more difficult problems than that of Third World adoptions. Many would argue that the success of such adoptions must be doubtful given the serious culture clash between the adoptive parents and the child. On the other hand it has to be admitted that not all the children of mono-cultural marriages avoid serious psychological problems. One of the strongest arguments for instituting a regime which would permit Irish adoptive parents to go through adoption procedures in Ireland is that it may go some way towards stopping the traffick- ing in children which is unfor- tunately a feature particularly of adoptions of South American children. This has already been recommended by the Report of the Review Committee on Adoption Services published in 1984. Some action leading to the introduction of legislation dealing both with the recognition of foreign adoptions and the adoption in Ireland of foreign children is clearly called for.. •

Does the Irish Criminal Justice System work?

161

From the President

167

Practice Notes

168

Solicitors Costs

171

Irish Solicitors in London Bar Association's Second Charity Ball

175

People & Places 176 Younger Members News 178 Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989 Lawbrief Correspondence Book Reviews Professional Information 180 183 187 189 194 * Executive Editor: Mary Gaynor Committee: Eamonn G. Hall, Chairman Michael V. O'Mahony, Vice-Chairman John F. Buckley Gary Byrne Patrick McMahon Charles R. M. Meredith Advertising: Seán Ó hOisín. Telephone: 305236 Fax: 307860 Printing: Turner's Printing Co. Ltd., Longford. * 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. The appearance of an advertisement in this publication does not necessarily indicate approval by the Society for the product or service advertised. Daire Murphy John Schutte

Published at Blackhall Place, Dublin 7. Tel.: 710711. Telex: 31219. Fax: 710704.

159