Comprehensive overview of the Irish criminal justice system, its current problems and its vision for the future. Collection of essays by major office-holders, experienced practitioners, leading academics, legal scholars, sociologists, psychologists, philosophers and educationalists.
The extent and duration of interpreter provision for Irish speakers appearing in court in the long nineteenth century have long been a conundrum. In 1737 the Administration of Justice (Language) Act stipulated that all legal proceedings in Ireland should take place in English, thus placing Irish speakers at a huge disadvantage, obliging them to communicate through others, and treating them as foreigners in their own country. Gradually, over time, legislation was passed to allow the grand juries, forerunners of county councils, to employ salaried interpreters. Drawing on extensive research on grand jury records held at national and local level, supplemented by records of correspondence with the Chief Secretary's Office in Dublin Castle, this book provides definitive answers on where, when, and until when, Irish language court interpreters were employed. Contemporaneous newspaper court reports are used to illustrate how exactly the system worked in practice and to explore official, primarily negative, attitudes towards Irish speakers. The famous Maamtrasna murders trials, where, most unusually for such a serious case, a police constable acted as court interpreter, are discussed. The book explains the appointment process for interpreters, discusses ethical issues that arose in court, and includes microhistories of some 90 interpreters.
This book explores how Irish prison policy has come to take on its particular character, with comparatively low prison numbers, significant reliance on short sentences and a policy-making climate in which long periods of neglect are interspersed with bursts of political activity all prominent features. Drawing on the emerging scholarship of policy analysis, the book argues that it is only through close attention to the way in which policy is formed that we will fully understand the nature of prison policy.
Law and Public Administrative in Ireland provides a comprehensive account of an area of law which is conceptually difficult. In examining the key themes and concepts of Irish administrative law, along with the application to real cases, the book clarifies and enlivens this crucial area of law. It provides an up-to-date analysis of the core grounds of judicial review, incorporating landmark post-Celtic Tiger era decisions concerning procedural fairness. Underlining the ever evolving nature of administrative law, the book evaluates recent refinements to traditional concepts and distinctions, such as the borderline between an error of law and an error of fact, legitimate expectation, and the obligation to take relevant matters into account. The rising importance of the European legal instruments receives a direct examination, with the book charting the emerging use of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights, and how international perspectives have impacted traditional concepts and approaches to the subject. Law and Public Administrative in Ireland displays the breadth and diversity of Irish administrative law, supplying an analysis of many legislative reforms and legal innovations which followed Ireland's economic downturn. The book explores both the law and the factors informing it, looking at the policy choices which have shaped the Irish administrative State. It reflects upon the efforts to strengthen parliamentary scrutiny over the administrative state as well as critically reviewing the role of non-judicial bodies, including the Office of the Ombudsman and Public Inquiries. The landmark reform of the institutional structures of local government in the Local Government Reform Act 2014, including changes to the planning and development, are analyzed for the first time. The book provides an account of this complex area of law which is both accessible and contextual, making it an invaluable text for both students and academics. The scope of the material covered is highly relevant to those studying administrative law.
This book provides a unique account of the high-profile community-based restorative justice projects in the Republican and Loyalist communities that have emerged with the ending of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Unprecedented new partnerships between Republican communities and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have developed, and former IRA and UVF combatants and political ex prisoners have been amongst those involved. Community restorative justice projects have been central to these groundbreaking changes, acting as both facilitator and transformer. Based on an extensive range of interviews with key players in this process, many of them former combatants, and unique access to the different community projects this books tells a fascinating story. At the same time this book explores the wider implications for restorative justice internationally, highlighting the important lessons for partnerships between police and community in other jurisdictions, particularly in the high-crime alienated neighbourhoods which exist in most western societies, as well as transitional ones. It also offers a critical analysis of the roles of both community and state and the tensions around the ownership of justice, and a critical, unromanticized assessment of the role of restorative justice in the community.
This book provides an account and analysis of policing in Northern Ireland, following the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) from the start of 'the troubles' in the 1960s up to 1999. It focuses on three key aspects of the police legitimation process: reform measures which are implemented to redress a legitimacy crisis; representational strategies which are invoked to offer positive images of policing; and public responses to these various strategies. The book also makes a powerful contribution to wider current debates about police legitimacy, police-community relations, community resistance, and conflict resolution.