The Gazette 1993

VOL. 87 NO. 2

JULY/AUGUST 1993

B 0

We are offered a generous menu of statutes and cases, although the index would hardly whet the appetite. The meat is spiced with some European flavour as we ponder on the author's reflection that most EC States do not appear to operate compulsory hotel registration schemes. This approach would appear to assume that variations in hotel standards can satisfactorily be dealt with by a sufficiently broadly based information system rather than compulsory registration involving a minimum statutory definition of what a hotel is or should be. One could even wash this down with the intoxicating speculation that the present Irish approach might endanger the proper functioning of the common market in hotel services in the European Community since it could deny to, say, a French or Spanish chain of hotels the freedom to operate a hotel in Ireland, because it might not satisfy the statutory definition here of a hotel. There is plenty here to digest, but not too much to bewilder the guest or confuse the consumer.

community and society at large which would have been inconceivable only three decades ago. The evidence of curriculum reform, multiplication of courses and improved libraries, is impressive. The results of this expansion of effort are already showing in the lawyers who have gained from the new opportunities. One of the university's major purposes is to advance knowledge. Accordingly, the university is often responsible for the creation of "new languages" as much as it is for instruction in the ancient tongues. [The writer uses languages and tongues here in the metaphorical sense]. To a certain extent, the university, as an engine of change in modern society, has a responsibility to take part in the solution of problems that touch upon the general welfare of our society. In his perceptive introduction to Law and Liberty in Ireland, Anthony Whelan, the editor, emphasises this point by noting that the Law School and the College must be open to the views and assessment of the community which they ultimately serve. Accordingly, this book specifically addresses some of the problems that now touch upon the welfare of Irish society. Law and Liberty in Ireland is a book of essays which grew out of a series of public lectures given by members of the Trinity College Law School in Michaelmas Term of 1992. The lecture series and the book were conceived of as the Law School's It is appropriate in this short notice to state that law has been the subject of study in Trinity College virtually since the College's foundation. By the middle of the 19th century there were three professors of law. But such teaching was part-time and non- specialist and essentially an adjunct to contribution to the quartercentenary of Trinity College's foundation in 1592.

Hotel, Restaurant & Public House Law

By Marc McDonald, Butterworths, 1992, paperback, £40.00.

Marc McDonald BCL BL M Litt, is a lecturer in law in the School of Hotel, Tourism and Catering Management at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Cathal Brugha Street. He has limited his area of enquiry into the laws and authorisations relevant to establishing a hospitality business. In so doing the text does not deal with many areas of applied law, as the writer is happy that they are better dealt with elsewhere, for instance planning, clubs (although there is reference to night clubs) and conveyancing aspects. Indeed the licensing practitioner will usually reach for Woods in order to assemble the nuts and bolts of licensing procedures. This book is not so much nuts and bolts as flesh and blood to the enquiring mind on the law of hospitality in Ireland. The author charts a course that will lead us into the realms of registration of hotels, food premises and liquor licenses. He leads us through the labyrinth of the granting of new publican's licenses. On our route we take a look at renewals and transfers. Public dancing, public music and singing, and music and film copyright licenses are all mapped and magnified. Mr. McDonald brings us further and examines passing off and hospitality identity indicators. While the case law in this area appears to be almost exclusively foreign, one wonders whether the recent indigenous case involving the "Muckross" Hotels would have had an influence, had the timing of the publication been a little different.

To be recommended.

Justin McKenna

Law and Liberty in Ireland

By Anthony Whelan, (editor), Oak Tree Press, Dublin, in association with Trinity College Law School, 1993, 202 pp, hardback £19.95, paperback £12.95. A profound transformation has occurred in the law schools of Irish universities during the last two decades. Full-time lawyers have facilitated unparalleled opportunities for research and inquiry, making possible a service to the legal

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