Human Rights in Ireland

We are pleased to welcome this guest post from Dr. Louise Kennefick, Lecturer in Law at NUI Maynooth.

With the news that the Department of Justice and Equality is to conduct a review of the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006 (as amended), the insanity defence is back in the limelight once again, and not a moment too soon. The recent Report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, court proceedings (e.g. D.P.P. v. W.B. discussed below), and A Vision for Change have all played their part in mobilising the government. Read Full Post »

We are delighted to welcome Joe Noonan (partner in Noonan, Linehan, Carroll and Coffey, www.nlcc.ie), Solicitor for the Ploughshare activists to write about the civil disobedience in Shannon and the subsequent acquittal of the activists.

Director of Public Prosecutions v Deirdre Clancy, Nuin Dunlop, Karen Fallon, Damien Moran, & Ciaron O’Reilly,

On July 25^th 2006, a Jury in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court voted unanimously to acquit five people charged with criminal damage to a US military transport plane at Shannon Airport. The alleged offence had taken place on February 3^rd 2003, shortly before the invasion of Iraq  by US, British and other forces.  The Defendants had pleaded that they had acted to defend life and/or property at a time when they feared the outbreak of hostilities which would have no basis in International Law. They had, they claimed, a lawful excuse. Read Full Post »

A conference will be held in Durham this September on the recent reform of the partial defences to murder in England and Wales. The focus of this conference is the imminent implementation of important rules relating to ‘loss of control’ and ‘diminished responsibility’ as partial defences to murder. The defence of provocation will be replaced by a new defence of loss of control, and subject to new qualifying triggers which address the circumstances in which the defendant was placed, rather than their relevant characteristics. A new test will be adopted for diminished responsibility replacing the old provision in section 2(1) of the Homicide Act 1957. Read Full Post »

Yesterday saw a flurry of activity in the area of criminal justice, with the publication of the new Victim’s Charter and the signing into law of the Criminal Procedure Act 2010. Both of these developments will be examined in future posts. Today’s blog deals with the most newsworthy piece of draft legislation announced in the past 12 months: the Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Bill 2010.

This Bill has been long in gestation, with previous versions mooted by the government in 2007 and by Fine Gael in 2009. The Law Reform Commission published a lengthy and comprehensive Report late last year dealing with Criminal Defences generally.  Readers might remember I blogged about the LRC’s Report when it was published, highlighting what I saw as the gap between the Report’s recommendations about legitimate defence in the home, and the overly broad wording of the draft bill attached to the Report.

According to the Department’ s press release the Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Bill 2010 makes provision for the following:

·        definitions for such terms as “dwelling”, “property” and the “curtilage” of the dwelling.
·        the extent to which justifiable force may be used against an intruder.
·        that the use of justifiable force against an intruder with criminal intent would not exclude the use of force causing death
·        the absence of a requirement on the part of an occupier to retreat when defending the dwelling or the people in it against an intruder entering with criminal intent.
·        that a person who uses such force as is permitted by the Bill will not be liable in tort in respect of any injury, loss or damage arising from such force.

The Bill also states that where justifiable force (see below) is used,  that force does not exclude the use of lethal force against an intruder.

Read Full Post »