Making More Sense Of The Law

McDowell Announces Next Steps In The Rationalisation Of Irish Criminal Law Code

Last week The Tanaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Michael McDowell, T.D., announced the second phase of a major rationalisation of Irish criminal law. 

Speaking at the launch of a project to codify all substantive criminal law in one easily accessible penal code the Tanaiste also announced that a new statutory committee, the Criminal Law Codification Advisory Committee would oversee the preparation of the new code, a process that he estimated could take from between five to ten years to complete

This committee will be chaired by Professor Finbarr McAuley of UCD, Jean Monnet

Professor of European Criminal Justice Law with the remaining members to be announced shortly.

The Tanaiste emphasised that "This project has its origins in the Programme for Government in which a commitment was made to codify the criminal law into a single Crimes Act. 

"It follows on from the recommendations made by the Expert Group I established in its 2004 Report on the codification of the Criminal Law.

The Programme for Government included a commitment to codify all substantive criminal law into a single Crimes Act.

As a first step in fulfilling this commitment, the Tanaiste established an Expert Group in January 2003, to consider possible approaches to codification and to advise on the scope and extent of such approaches, in particular, identifying any areas where the Group considered codification may give rise to policy difficulties. 

The Group was chaired by Professor Finbarr McAuley, UCD and Law Reform Commissioner and included criminal law representatives from the State apparatus, practice and legal academia.

In its Report, the Group outlined the overall structure and style of a criminal code and recommended that codification be undertaken on a phased basis using the various tools of restatement, consolidation and law reform in developing and maintaining the code.

Some of the benefits to be realised by the rationalisation include:

• helping clear up which rules can be found in an area of law which impinges on every citizen,
• providing an opportunity to make the law accessible and easily understood, and
• taking advantage of the process to eliminate obscurity, inefficiencies and lack of clarity. 

To illustrate the potential benefits of the rationalisation, the Tanaiste described a situation in a criminal trial where lawyers and Judges, may have to use the fingers of both hands, assuming considerable manual dexterity, in order to reference the relevant statutory authorities .

These "authorities" are not limited to several Statutes of the Oireachtas and Acts going back several centuries, but also include thick volumes of law containing the layers of Judicial wisdom on the particular offence with which the defendant is charged. 

Referring to other common law countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States where separate state jurisdictions have for decades successfully operated penal codes, the Tanaiste said that codification will "make life easier for all stakeholders involved in the criminal justice system, lawyers, Judges, the police and not least the ordinary citizen."

The members of the new Criminal Law Codification Advisory Committee will be drawn from key centres of criminal law expertise including the policy, advisory, prosecution, drafting, the practising profession and Universities.

To underpin the work of the Committee, the Tanaiste also announced innovative administrative and research support arrangements for the Advisory Committee. 

These involve the establishment of a dedicated Research Support Unit at UCD which will be funded by the Tanaiste's Department, and a permanent Departmental Secretariat comprised of six officials who will be seconded from the Department to assist the Committee and participate in the research function.