Re Woods

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 19 December 1967
• Date: 19 December 1967
• Court: Supreme Court

Ireland, Supreme Court.

(Ó Dálaigh C.J., Haugh, Walsh, Budd and Fitzgerald JJ.)

Re Woods

International law in general — Relation to municipal law — Treaty — Whether part of municipal law — Universal Declaration of Human Rights —The law of Ireland

The individual in international law — In general — Position of individuals in international law — Human rights — Universal Declaration of Human Rights — Whether part of municipal law — Interpretation — Article 4 — Meaning of “slavery or servitude”— Whether extending to sentence of penal servitude — The law of Ireland

Treaties — Operation and enforcement of treaties — Whether treaty part of municipal law — Universal Declaration of Human Rights — Whether part of the municipal law — Article 4 — Servitude — Meaning of — The law of Ireland

Summary: The facts:—Woods was serving a sentence of penal servitude. He challenged his detention inter alia on the ground that a sentence of penal servitude was contrary to Article 4(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provided that ‘no one shall be held in slavery or servitude …’

Held:—(1) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not part of the domestic law of Ireland

(2) ‘Servitude’ in Article 4 means the condition of being a slave or serf. A sentence of penal servitude has nothing to do with it.

The following is the text of the relevant part of the judgments of the Court:

[Ó Dálaigh C.J. rejected the first seven grounds of challenge and continued:]

. . . .

Ground 8.—‘That a sentence of penal servitude is repugnant to the Constitution and contrary to Article 4(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the 10th December, 1948, and accepted and ratified by our Government on the 25th February, 1953.’ First, the Constitution contains no provision which could be considered as rendering a sentence of penal servitude unconstitutional. In fact it may be pointed out that the Rules for the Government of Prisons, 1947, contain no special or exceptional provisions for prisoners serving sentences of penal servitude. Secondly, the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not part of the domestic law of Ireland: see Article 29, s. 6, of the Constitution and the judgment of this Court in In re Ó LaighléisIR.1 Article 4 of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights says:—‘No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.’...