The Gazette 1994

JUNE 1994

GAZETTE

Judge Keane observes that perhaps that this was an ironic gesture on someone's part: "The staggering complexity of modern Irish company law sometimes looks very like a practical joke, given the relatively small size of the irish economy." All lawyers of our time could instantly inform any person that an important anchor of corporate legislation was passed in 1963 - the Companies Act, 1963. The Act contains three hundred and ninety nine sections, with thirteen schedules. Practitioners may have some difficulty, however, in remem- bering all the subsequent legislation. The 1963 Act was followed in the 1970s by the European Communities (Companies) Regulations, 1973 and the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1977. Then we had to comply with our obligations under EC law. This resulted in the Companies Amendment Acts 1983 and 1986, the European Communities (Stock Exchange) Regulations, 1984-1992, the European Communities (Mergers and Divisions of Companies) Regulations, 1987, the European Communities (European Economic Interest Groupings) Regulations, 1989 and the European Communities (Companies Group Assets) Regulations, 1992 as well as the Companies Act, 1990. Mr. MacCann describes the contents of these pieces of legislation as "turgid". He notes that the drafting is "in technical and inaccessible language" and that many provisions "are at best bewildering and pose a considerable intellectual challenge to both lawyers and businessmen who try to interpret, and thus to ensure compliance with the law". legislation handbook which contains in one volume all the Companies Acts from 1963 to 1990 and various statutory instruments which are fully consolidated and annotated. There are detailed cross references and extensive case law notes. Each section also cross refers to relevant UK companies legislation. A "how-to- use" section guides the reader on how to maximise the use of the work and there is a detailed index. 196 Mr. MacCann has produced a comprehensive Irish company

At the launch of Butterworth (Ireland) Companies Acts 1963-1990 were, l-r: the Hon. Mr. Justice Declan Costello, who launched the book; Lyndon MacCann, the author; the Hon. Mr. Justice Ronan Keane and Gerard Coakley, General Manager, Butterworth Ireland.

information for sentencers, lawyers and all genuinely concerned with this topic. The author's structured and painstaking approach entails some measure of overlapping and repetition, his style rather equates with some of the Home Office circulars quoted, and the task might arguably have been accomplished in less than its 400 odd reservations. Of particular interest to the rapidly changing Irish situation is the discussion of the competing jurisprudential justifications of punishment for crime between the reductivist or utilitarian approach and the "just deserts" approach, which latter has substantially prevailed in England and Wales by virtue of the Criminal Justice Acts of 1991 and 1993, and which, likewise, holds the upper hand here, as reflected in the Law Reform Commission's Discussion Paper on Sentencing and subsequent legislation. Further, in consequence of the proliferation of sentence appeals to the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal, both from Crown Courts and certain decisions of Magistrates' Courts and, by virtue of the availability since 1988 of prosecution appeals of sentences perceived to be unduly lenient (recently also provided for here in í broadly similar terms), a very substantial corpus of sentencing case- law has been developed by that Court. pages. Nonetheless, its virtues appreciably outweigh any such

Occasionally lawyers may consider themselves adrift on the shark-infested seas of corporate law. On those occasions, the lawyer who seeks a clear-sighted path and who is endeavouring to avoid the metaphorical sharks will benefit from possessing a copy of Butterworth Ireland's Companies Acts 1963-1990.

Dr. Eamonn G. Hall

Emmins on Sentencing

Second Edition by Martin Wasik, Blackstone Press Limited, 1994, 404pp, £21.95stg, paperback. Sentencing, like Mr. Daniel O 'Donnell, arouses few reactions of indifference. Dr. Paul O'Mahony in his recent Crime and Punishment in Ireland argues cogently that, whilst public concern over increased urban crime is justified and undeniable, a degree of selectivity and distortion in its depiction by some media and local political sources has retarded much debate to an emotional and pejorative level. It is, accordingly, all the more timely and valuable to have in Mr. Martin Wasik's second edition of Emmins on Sentencing a substantial and dispassionate account of the relevant law and practice in England and Wales; together with Dr. O'Mahony's more broadly-based and

opinionated survey of the Irish situation, the work provides an invaluable summary of relevant

In "guideline" decisions, such as Aramah as to sentencing in drug cases,