The Gazette 1991

NOVEMBER 1991

GAZETTE

standard of quality with an efficient and reasonably up-to-date service for its subscribers. To a large extent this had been achieved by the improvement of the last eight years. This was borne out by com- parison to previous years. The 1983 reports had about 390 pages and were produced some years in arrears. The 1991 Irish Reports will comprise one. thousand t wo hundred pages in two volumes, the first of which will be produced before this Christmas i.e. in 1991, the same year as its title. The improvement in publishing the Irish Reports was due, according to the Chief Justice, in large part, to the members of the Council in these past eight years. A particular mention was made of the Chairmen in this period, Noel Macdonafd and David But/er, both now sadly de- ceased, and the present Chairman, Eoghan Fitzsimons, SC. Credit was also due to the present Vice- Chairman Michael McDowell, SC, Secretary, Carroll Moran, Editor, Sunniva McDonagh, BL, Business Manager, Michael McC/oskey and Compositor, Kathy Keily. Apart from the reports, the Council's other periodic publication is the Digest. The Digest contains a precis of all the cases reported between certain years and is, thus, an invaluable reference book for lawyers. Up to now the Council has published seven Digests containing cases going, in unbroken sequence, from 1894 to 1983. The Quinquennial Digest 1984/1988 was the eighth digest and covered the years between 1984 and 1988. It contained, in over 1,200 columns, synopses of all cases reported in those five years in the Irish Reports and in the Irish Law Reports Monthly. The Chief Justice stated that the large size of this book, for such a relatively short period of five years, was indicative of the in- creased volume of reporting in recent times, compared with years gone by. The Digest was started by Professor Ted Ryan, who combined the role of being a Professor of Law at University College Cork with that 347

Law Reporting Council celebrates One Hundred Years The Law Reporting Council of Ireland has celebrated the first one hundred years of its existence. It was in February, 1891 that the Law Reporting Council was registered under the Companies Acts then in force. However, the history of the Council goes back much further. Records show that it existed in one form or another since about 1868 and the Irish Reports, the principal work of the Council, have been pro- duced and published since 1838. The Law Reporting Council may be described as a "joint venture" which includes senior members of the Judiciary, the Attorney General, Senior Counsel, Junior Counsel, the Director General of the Law Society and members of the Law Society. The members of the Society on the Council are Michael O'Mahony, Michael Staines and Eamonn Hall. The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice T. Finlay launched the Quinquennial Digest 1984/1988 in the King's Inns on Thursday, October 17, 1991. The Chief Justice stated that it was a fortuitous coincidence that the Council of Law Reporting for Ireland hosted a reception for the launch of the Quinquennial Digest in 1991 - the centenary of the

year in which the present council was incorporated. The Chief Justice stated the principal work of the Council was the publication of the Irish Reports which contain the official records of the important judgments of the Supreme Court, the High Court and the Court of Criminal Appeal. The importance of these official reports in a political system firmly rooted in the rule of law can never be under- rated. The Chief Justice stated that our legal system, like most other common law countries, depended heavily on precedent and in particular on the law as it was to be found in the judgments of earlier cases. Therefore, it was easy to see how essential it was to have a reliable system of reporting such judgments. The Chief Justice stated that in keeping with such expectations of reliability, the Irish Reports have been produced over the years to a consistently high quality. There had been complaints in the past at the slowness with which the reports were published, but the authors of such criticism should remember that because the work was an official record for posterity, quality couldn't be easily sacrificed solely in the interest of punctuality.

The aim of the Council, stated the Chief Justice, was to marry a high