Book review: 'consolidated circuit court rules: practice and procedure' by Margaret Cordial (Roundhall Sweet and Maxwell)

• Author: Esmond Smyth
• Position: President of the Circuit Court
• Pages: 248-254

BOOK REVIEW:

“CONSOLIDATED CIRCUIT COURT RULES:

PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE”

BY MARGARET CORDIAL

(ROUNDHALL SWEET AND MAXWELL)

THE HON. MR. JUSTICE ESMOND SMYTH*

The consolidated rules of the Circuit Court were

launched by the Minister for Justice in November 2001 and

Margaret Cordial’s excellent commentary followed shortly

afterwards. It is an understatement to say that both were long

over due. The previous rules were published nearly fifty

years earlier and continued in force during a period when

more than sixty new statutory instruments were made which

affected the practice and procedure of the Circuit Court.

Indeed, unless you were a diligent practitioner who regularly

perused Iris Oifigiúil, you might have been completely

unaware of the existence of new rules, still less be able to

locate them easily. How much more difficult it must have

been for a member of the public searching for a route map to

the Circuit Court to enable them pursue a legal right of their

choice – particularly if they did not have the benefit of a

barrister or solicitor to assist them. Clearly something needed

to be done to rectify this undesirable situation, so the Circuit

Court Rules Committee embarked some years ago on the task

of consolidating the rules. Their overdue arrival has

significantly improved access to the Rules and Procedures of

the Circuit Court.

To make matters even better, Margaret Cordial has

written a learned and authoritative commentary on the

consolidated rules, wherein she carefully cites and analyses

the latest decisions and outlines the various proofs which are

required to ground applications to the Circuit Court. What

2002]Book Review: "Consolidated Circuit Court Rules"248

* President of the Circuit Court.