DPP v Quilligan (No. 2)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: Supreme Court
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1989
• Docket Number: [S.C. No. 367 of 1985]
• Date: 01 January 1989

(S.C.)

People (D.P.P.)

and

Quilligan (No. 2)

- Jurisdiction -Appeal against acquittal - Whether Supreme Court has ancillary jurisdiction to order retrial after appeal by prosecution against acquittal -Criminal Procedure Act, 1967 (No. 12) - Rules of the Superior Courts, 1962 (S.I. No. 72), O. 58, r. 9 - Rules of the Superior Courts, 1986 (S.I. No. 15), O. 87. rr. 2, 9, 11 - Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Art. 34.4.3.

Order 58 of the Rules of the Superior Courts, 1962, governed appeals to the Supreme Court from the High Court, until new rules of court were made in 1986. The Rules of 1962 contained no specific provisions dealing with appeals from the Central Criminal Court (the High Court exercising its criminal jurisdiction), as the only form of appeal from that court recognised at the time the Rules were made was to the Court of Criminal Appeal. Rule 9 of O. 58 contained a general provision that: "if, upon the hearing of an appeal, it shall appear to the Supreme Court that a new trial ought to be had, it may order that the judgment or order be set aside and that a new trial be had." In 1975 the Supreme Court held that it had jurisdiction under Article 34 of the Constitution to hear an appeal brought by a person who had been convicted before the Central Criminal Court. In 1982 it held that its appellate...