Eccles v Ireland
Jurisdiction | Ireland |
Judge | FINLAY C.J. |
Judgment Date | 01 January 1986 |
Neutral Citation | 1985 WJSC-SC 2114 |
Court | Supreme Court |
Date | 01 January 1986 |
1985 WJSC-SC 2114
THE SUPREME COURT
FINLAY C.J.
HENCHY J.
GRIFFIN J.
HEDERMAN J.
McCarthy J.
BETWEEN
and
Citations:
CONSTITUTION ART 35
CONSTITUTION ART 35.2
CONSTITUTION ART 35.5
CONSTITUTION ART 38.1
CONSTITUTION ART 38.3
CONSTITUTION ART 38.6
EAST DONEGAL CO-OP V AG 1970 IR 317
OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE ACT 1939 S39
OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE ACT 1939 S39(2)
OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE ACT 1939 S39(4)
Synopsis:
CONSTITUTION
Statute
Validity - Trial of offences - Special Criminal Court - Judicial independence - Trial in due course of law - Trial in Special Criminal Court not inconsistent with Constitution - Section 39 of Offences Against the State Act, 1939 - Decision of Barrington J. (12/7/85) affirmed - (204/85 - Supreme Court - 1/11/85).
|Eccles v. Ireland|
CRIMINAL LAW
Special Criminal Court
Establishment - Validity - Judicial independence - Trial in due course of law - Section 39 of Act of 1939 not inconsistent with Constitution - Offences Against the State Act, 1939 - Decision of Barrington J. - (12/7/85) affirmed - (204/85 - Supreme Court - 1/11/85).
|Eccles v. Ireland|
SPECIAL CRIMINAL COURT
Establishment
Validity - Judicial independence - Trial in due course of law - Section 39 of Act of 2939 not inconsistent with Constitution - Offences Against the State Act, 1939 - Decision of Barrington J. (12/7/85) affirmed - (204/85 - Supreme Court - 1/11/85).
|Eccles v. Ireland|
WORDS AND PHRASES
"Due course of law"
Criminal law - Trial - Special Criminal Court - Constitutional jurisdiction - Decision of Barrington J. (12/7/85) affirmed - (204/85 - Supreme Court - 1/11/85).
|Eccles v. Ireland|
JUDGMENT OF THE COURT delivered the 1st day of November1985by FINLAY C.J.
This is an appeal by the Plaintiffs against the Order of the High Court made by Barrington J. on the 12th July 1985 dismissing their claim against the Defendants. Each of the Plaintiffs was convicted of capital murder by the Special Criminal Court after a trial commencing in February 1985. The third, fourth and fifth named Defendants were the members of the Court presiding at that trial.
In these proceedings the Plaintiffs sought adeclaration that section 39 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939(the 1939 Act) is inconsistent with the Constitution, together with consequential declarations that the convictions and the sentences imposed on them are invalid and of no effect.
The Plaintiffs" case rests on the provisions of subsections (2) and (4) of section 39 of the 1939 Act which provide as follows:
2 "(2) Each member of a Special Criminal Court shall be appointed and be removable at will by the Government.
(4) The Minister for Finance may pay to every member of a Special Criminal Court such (if any) remuneration and allowances as the said Minister may think proper and different rates of remuneration and allowances may be so paid to different members of any such Court or to the members of different such Courts."
It is submitted that the separate or combined effect of these two subsections is to deprive persons sitting as members of the Special Criminal Court, at any time, of judicial independence to the extent and with the effect that persons tried before that Court are deprived of theright to a trial in due course of law guaranteed by Article 38.1 of theConstitution.The...
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