The Gazette 1995

GAZETTE

JULY 1995

in the country in which it is to be produced. For those who are not so familiar, the Report supplies a step by step description of the procedures involved. Space does not permit of the procedure being described in this article. The Report is concerned with the abolition of legislation in the context of the processes which are carried out by the diplomatic or consular agents of the country in which a foreign public document has to be produced in order to authenticate the signature of the person who purports to verify the due execution of the document on behalf of the state from which it has emanated. In the case of a foreign public document executed in Ireland and intended for use abroad, this is done by a member of the consular staff acting on behalf of the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The signature (and stamp) of the Department is then verified (or legalised) by an appropriate consular officer at the embassy in Ireland (or, in some cases, London) of the country in which the document is to be produced and acted upon. If Ireland should decide to ratify the Convention, the authentication of the due execution in Ireland of a foreign public document intended to be produced in and acted upon in another state would be by means of an apostille. Under the Convention an apostille must be applied by the "Competent Authority" in the state who is nominated and appointed for that purpose. The signature and seal (or stamp) of the Competent Authority to the apostille certificate would be accepted without further verification by the diplomatic or consular agents of the foreign state. There is much debate in the Report as to who might be nominated as the "Competent Authority" in Ireland and whether there is a case for the appointment of a number of persons or bodies to act as such Authority. The Commission concludes, and so recommends, that there should be a sole Competent Authority and that the Department of Foreign Affairs would be eminently suitable for such a role on the basis of its long experience - going back to the foundation of the State - and its satisfactory performance of the work which legislation involves. The Report identifies the areas in certain

regulations and statutory instruments including the Rules of the Superior Courts in which amendments would require to be made in order to accommodate the apostille certificate in lieu of legislation. The Commission recommends that Ireland should ratify the Hague Convention of 5th October 1961 and that one central Competent Authority should be appointed for the purpose is issuing, applying and recording apostilles and, as previously stated, that the Department of Foreign Affairs should be appointed to that role. The recommendations in the Report will, I believe, be warmly welcomed by various commercial, exporting and legal interests including the Faculty of Notaries Public in Ireland who, for well over a decade, have campaigned for Ireland to ratify the Convention. Our many years of practice as a lawyer, I have found that reports published by the Law Reform Commission provide a succinct, yet comprehensive, review of the evolution and development of the law on the particular subject under review and its current status. This invariably saved me many hours of tedious and time- consuming research. The Report reviewed above supplies the reader with all he or she will ever need to know about the legislation of foreign public documents and the advantages which would be against if Ireland were to introduce the apostille system as the means of verifying the due execution of such documents. I strongly recommend the Report to lawyers and notaries whose work involves them in the preparation of or advising on foreign public documents.

Series, a series which "seeks to provide a comprehensive account of the entire body of criminal law in force in this jurisdiction". Such a series is long overdue. When I was a student I resented having to rely on foreign textbooks, supplemented by a few photo-copied decisions of the Irish Courts, when studying a system of law that was developing independently of its English equivalent. The Irish Legislature often slavishly follows English statutes when enacting new legislation but our judiciary has developed a more liberal jurisprudence, due presumably to the fundamental rights provisions of the Constitution. clearly and fairly. Every practising lawyer should have a copy for this reason. However, even the academic lawyer and student will find it useful in that the author often engages in a comparative survey of the relevant law in other jurisdictions and he is prepared to indicate how the law could be changed to bring it more into line with his own views. This book is extremely well researched and states the law It is worth noting at this juncture that the liberal jurisprudence in this country does not always find favour with the author. When referring to the "Whelan c a s e" on joint possession, in which the accused were acquitted because the Court could not be certain that all of them were guilty, he is quick to show how this particular " p r ob l em" can be "rectified". Similarly, he is not at all impressed j with the "MacEoin" decision where the Irish courts, in contradistinction to all other common law jurisdictions, have accepted a subjective test as opposed to an objective test in relation to provocation. Furthermore, he is inclined to quote foreign judgments to underpin his own view o f the law as it is here - I would caution that, unless the Irish courts have effectively decided on a specific point of law in a judgment, we cannot be sure that they will necessarily

E. Rory O'Connor

Of fences Against the Pe r son

by Peter Charleton, BL. Publisher: Roundhall Press, 1992, 415pp, hardback. £45.00 (hb), £25.00 (pb).

"Of f e n c es against the Person" was the first volume in the Irish Criminal Law

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