The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter, T.D, has
announced that the Government today approved, in principle, proposals for a
number of major reforms to our Courts Structures. The Minster said that
proposals accepted by his Government colleagues will require the holding of
a Constitutional Referendum and have the potential to achieve some of the
most significant changes to the courts structures which had remained
largely unchanged since 1924.
The Minister said: “An amendment to Article 34 of the Constitution, as
proposed, would permit the establishment of additional superior courts
including, for example, the establishment of a Civil Court of Appeal and a
new separate Family Court structure. This proposal would also allow the
Oireachtas to consider the establishment of other specialist superior
courts, should they be required. The work to be undertaken will also
consider the constitutional change required to enable the State to
participate in any arrangement providing for the establishment of a
European Patent Court. ”
The Government also agreed that consideration should be given to other
constitutional changes including, for example, possible amendments to
Article 26 dealing with the reference of a Bill by the President to the
Supreme Court. The Minister said “I am of the view that we need to review
the procedure whereby the Supreme Court is confined to delivering one
judgment only and no minority judgment may be delivered in the
determination of an Article 26 application. This may create an artificial
appearance of unanimity and consideration is being given to whether there
should be greater transparency and whether it is in the public interest
that individual members of the court should be enabled to deliver
individual judgements.
Also, consideration is to be given to conferring a power on the Supreme
Court to determine whether a Presidential reference of a Bill to the
Supreme Court under Article 26 should be capable of rejection by that Court
for such adjudication due to the absence of a proper factual or evidential
basis on which to conduct such adjudication.”
Consideration is also to be given to possible amendments to Article 26 and
Article 34, in respect of Bills referred by the President to the Supreme
Court, to enable possible future constitutional challenges to Bills already
upheld as constitutional following such reference. For example, such
further constitutional challenge could be appropriate with regard to
legislation where a question arises not addressed by the Supreme Court in
its original decision under Article 26, and/or following the lapse of five
years or some other specified period from the date of the original
decision.
With regard to the establishment of a Court of Civil Appeal other issues
also arise for consideration such as whether, following the High Court
adjudicating in a constitutional matter, an appeal should be made directly
to the Supreme Court or whether the Court of Civil Appeal should play a
role.
Finally consideration will be given to adding a secular oath as an optional
alternative to the current form of judicial declaration contained in
Article 34.5.
Minister Shatter said “I would now expect to engage in a broad public
debate on these matters as the time has come to explore the much needed
reform of the current Constitutional framework. In this context I also
intend to bring forward at an early date the long promised Judicial Council
Bill.”
The Minister expressed his belief that, arising from this morning’s
Government decision, the necessary first steps can now be taken towards
making amendments to the Constitution to significantly improve the
structure of the Courts for the benefit of all concerned. The Minister
said he intends that work on these matters will commence shortly and a
decision on when to hold the necessary referendum will be made at a later
date.
17 July 2012
ENDS
Notes for Editors
http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/library3.nsf/(WebFiles)/D3E9CCA7BAAB5F868025760B0032EA4E/$FILE/Report%20of%20the%20Working%20Group%20on%20a%20Court%20of%20Appeal.pdf