Editorial

• Author: Rita Kilroy
• Pages: 11-13

EDITORIAL

For

a

disturbingly

great majority

of

people,

the

law

is

shrouded

in a

veil

of

mystery

and

shielded from public

scrutiny.

The spectre

of

revelatory

tribunals, villains

walking

free,

and

victims

wronged

as

a

consequence

of

the

adversarial

system confront

society

each

day.

This

is a

cause

for

concern,

as

the

law

must

enjoy

the

support

and

respect

of

society

to

ensure

its

effectiveness;

to

paraphrase

Benjamin

Franklin,

laws

that

are

too gentle

are

seldom

obeyed,

and laws

that

are

too

severe

are

seldom executed.

Thus

it

is

important

to

recognise that

behind

the front

lines

of

legislation and

judicial

action

lies

the

academic sphere,

where

laws

are

discussed

and questioned through robust

debate and

commentary.

The

law

debated thus becomes

a

law

of

the

people,

rather than

a

law

imposed

by

a

remote

institution.

The

vibrancy

of

this

academic debate

is

reflected

in

the

articles

in

this the

ninth

edition

of

the

Trinity

College Law Review.

These

articles

illustrate

that the

law

is

not

stagnant, but rather

a

powerful

and

evolving

force

that

embodies

the

prevailing

values

of

society.

In

her

discussion

of

'lawn

trials'

in

the

aftermath

of

the

Rwandan

conflict

Kate

McKenna

brings

our

attention

to

the

huge

backlog

of

prisoners

still

waiting

to

be

tried

for crimes

of

genocide,

and

discusses

how

this

problem

is

being

tackled

by

the training

of

local elders

to

conduct

ad

hoc

trials.

The

Rwandan solution

to

its

prisoner

crisis

is

clearly

not

ideal,

but Stephanie

Barbour's

analysis

of

retroactive sanctions

in

situations

of

normalised

violence elucidates

how difficult

it

is

to

apply

legal

norms

to

societies where,

for a time,

the rule

of

law

becomes

but

a

distant

memory.

These articles

beg

the

question:

by

what standards

can

those

who

commit

criminal

acts

where

it

is

the

norm

rather

that exception

be

judged?

Gerard

Kelly's

study

of

the

juvenile

justice

system

in

Northern

Ireland

and

new

community-based

restorative

justice

initiatives provides a

hopeful outlook

for

countries

where internal

conflict

and

social

division

have

threatened

to

undermine

the

legal

system.

Kelly's

article

illustrates

that

it

is

possible

to

build

legitimate

and effective structures outside

the

adversarial

court system,

thus

reducing

juvenile

offending

and

continuing

to

move the

North

out

of

its

cycle

of

violence.

International

trade

law

is

an

area

of

great promise,

the

promise

of

an

international

market

where

developing

countries have

a

real

influence

and

steer

their

own economic course. Eoin

Gubbin's

article

suggests that

the