People (Attorney General) v Conmey

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 06 October 1975
• Date: 06 October 1975
• Docket Number: [S.C. No. 145 of 1974]
• Court: Supreme Court

(S.C.)

The People (Attorney General)

and

Conmey

Establishment - Court of Criminal Appeal - High Court exercising criminal jurisdiction - Whether appeal lies to Supreme Court - Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act, 1961 (No. 38), s. 3 - Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Act, 1961 (No. 39), ss. 11, 12 -Constitution of Ireland, 1937, Article 34, ss. 1-4.

Article 34 of the Constitution provides that justice shall be administered in courts established by law; that the courts shall comprise courts of first instance and a court of final appeal which shall be called the Supreme Court; that the courts of first instance shall include a High Court invested with full original jurisdiction in and power to determine all matters and questions whether of law or fact, civil or criminal (s. 3, sub-s. 1); that the courts of first instance - "shall also include courts of local and limited jurisdiction with a right of appeal as determined by law" (s. 3, sub-s. 4); that the Supreme Court shall, with such exceptions and subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law, have appellate jurisdiction "from all decisions of the High Court, and shall also have appellate jurisdiction from such decisions of other courts as may be prescribed by law" (s. 4, sub-s. 3); and that no question of the validity of any law having regard to the provisions of the Constitution shall be raised in any court established under the Constitution, other than the High Court and the Supreme Court. Section 3 of the Courts (Establishment and Constitution) Act, 1961, enacts that on the commencement of the Act a court of appeal called the Court of Criminal Appeal shall stand established. Section 11 provides that the High Court exercising the criminal jurisdiction with which it is invested shall be known as the Central Criminal Court. The applicant was tried on indictment before a jury and convicted in the Central Criminal Court; he was sentenced by that court to a term of penal servitude. By leave of the trial judge the applicant appealed against his conviction to the Court of Criminal Appeal pursuant to s. 31 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924, as applied to that court in 1961, and that court heard and dismissed the appeal on the 31st July, 1973. The applicant failed to obtain a certificate pursuant to s. 29 of the Act of 1924 enabling him to appeal to the Supreme Court from the decision of the...