Carltona and the Irish Administration: Devanney v. Shields
| Author | James Dalton |
| Position | Senior Sophister Law student, Trinity College, Dublin |
| Pages | 118-125 |
Trinity College
Law
Review
CARL
TONA
AND
THE
IRISH
ADMINISTRATION:
DEVANNEY
V.
SHIELDS
JAMES
DALTON*
Introduction
The
Carltona
doctrine'
is
a
rule
of
administrative
law,
applicable
to
departments
of
central
government, whereby
the
official
acts
of
a
civil
servant
are
identified
as
the
acts
of
the
minister
of
the
relevant
department.
The
following
note
outlines
and
evaluates
the
Supreme
Court
decision
in
Devanney
v.
DJ
Shields,
D.P.P.,
Minister
for
Justice,
Ireland
and
the
Attorney
General,
and
Cawley
(notice
party),
2 where this
constitutionally significant
doctrine
was
applied.
Facts
and
Decision
Patrick
Devanney was accused
of
various
breaches
of
the
Road
Traffic Acts. The
hearing
of
the
case
in
the Mayo
District
Court
was
suspended pending
the
determination
of
an
application
for
judicial
review
to
the
High
Court
by
the
accused.
Devanney,
the
applicant
in
the
case,
sought
to
prevent
the
prosecution
proceeding
on
foot
of
the
summons
issued,
alleging
that
the
District
Court
clerk,
the officer
responsible
for
the
issue
of
summonses,
had
not
been
validly
appointed under
s.46(2)
of
the
Court
Officers Act
1926,
which reads:
Subject
to
the
provisions
of
this
section,
every
District Court
clerk
shall be
appointed
by
the
Minister
[for Justice] and
shall
(unless
he
is
a
pensionable
officer)
hold
the
office at
the
will
of
and be
removed
by
the
Minister.
Senior
Sophister
Law
student,
Trinity
College, Dublin.
Caritona
Ltd
v.
Commissioners
of
Public
Works [1943]
2
81,
hereinafter
Devanney.
It
is
reported with
the
High
Court
judgment
of
McCracken
J.
[Vol. I
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