The Gazette 1991

april GAZETT INCORPORATE D LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND Vol.85 No.2 March 1991 Viewpoint

1991

g a z e t t e

In this Issue

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Viewpoint Without Prejudice or Without effect

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GETTING THE SYSTEM TO WORK In his talk on the occasion of the presentation of the P J O'Reilly Award, Dr. Tony O'Reilly drew our attention to the difficulties of participating in the economic systems of Russia and Eastern Europe. His firm could not put a factory into a Russian city because the Law of Property and the Law of Contract there did not exist. He could not assure his shareholders that the jurisprudential under- pinning wh i ch is taken for granted by us, would operate within the next 20 or 30 years. We should be grateful for the underpinning and infra-structure which facilitates and exh i l a r a t es c omme r ce and economic development here. While it is of course true that we do have the constitutional and other p r o t ec t i ons t hat a well developed legal structure gives to the conduct of commerce and indeed of ordinary life, there are aspects on wh i ch we should not congratulate ourselves. The i mp r o v eme nt of infra- structure in this country has largely concentrated on the improvement of physical infra-structure, roads, communications etc. The practical legal infra-structure still is quite inadequate. We do not have a Land Registry s y s t em or indeed a Registry of Deeds system wh i ch wo r ks w i t h in acceptable t ime limits. Both of these institutions have been deprived of funds over the years and have not been permitted to develop themselves so as to provide an adequate service to their consumers. The Companies Office, even more strategic perhaps to commercial activities, is in a similar position. Ministers have made much play of the introduction of compu t e r i sa t i on into these Registries. It has to be said that there is little point in computerising the end product if the process is

impossibly slow. To have informa- tion emerge from a computer, as is the position in the Companies Office, wh i ch is anything up to 10 weeks old, does not serve any useful purpose. It is difficult to avoid the suspicion that there is a certain amount of window dressing about the computerisation. The Land Registry is due to be converted into some form of State Corporation. This alone will not be sufficient, though it is essential that it be properly funded and structured, it requires also a reform of our Laws of Property and Conveyancing to enable it to operate in what will shortly be a 21st Century climate. The other part of this island has just produced its recommendations for the reform of its Land and Conveyancing Law. The work of the Working Party under Professor John Wylie had the enormous advantage of the basic review of Northern Ireland Land Law pub- lished in 1971 but it still took 10 years to complete its work. We cannot afford a 10 year time scale for the preparation of recom- mendations if we are to present ourselves as a Western developed country. The present Law Reform Commission was asked to give special a t t en t i on to areas of Criminal Law and a whole time Commissioner, experienced in this area was appointed to spear head this work. Much of it will have been completed by the time the present Comm i s s i o n 's t e rm of o f f i ce expires at the end of 1991. There is a strong case for making Land Law and Conveyancing a principal object of the next Commission's attention during its 5 year term. We are already a long way behind other ' Common Law countries and now Northern Ireland in this modernisa- tion of Land and Conveyancing Law, and priority must be given to it. •

Mr. Justice Frank Griffin - a Retrospect 55 From the Director General 57 Lawbrief 61 Obituaries John Kelly 65 Antonia O'Callaghan 66 Younger Members News 67 Practice Notes 73 Trusteeship & the Pensions Act, 1990 75 Notes from Solicitors Mutual Defence Fund Ltd. 79 CAT - Self Assessment Video 83 Solicitors Financial Service 84 Minitel: Services for Legal Profession 86 Book Reviews 88 Professional Information 94

Executive Editor: Mary Gaynor Committee: Eamonn G. Hall, Chairman Michael V. O'Mahony, Vice-Chairman

John F. Buckley Patrick McMahon Daire Murphy

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

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