THE LAW Society has called on the Government to defer the enactment of the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill to allow for a proper debate, and said it wishes to make detailed submissions on the Bill. It asked that final decisions on the Bill be deferred to October.
The society is adding its voice to those of the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, which have expressed deep concern about this proposed legislation and, in particular, its intention to try cases of organised crime in the judge-only Special Criminal Court and thereby remove them from the normal jury courts system.
Director general of the Law Society Ken Murphy said: “The jury system has famously been called ‘the lamp that shows that freedom lives’. That lamp should not be dimmed without overwhelming evidence of a need to do so in the public interest. Such evidence has not yet been forthcoming.
“Debate on this Bill in the Oireachtas should be adjourned until the next Dáil term to allow proper consideration. It is wrong and dangerous that such legislation should be enacted with so much speed and so little debate,” he said.
“The Law Society cannot see what is driving the urgency of this. There is evidence of a problem of intimidation of witnesses but not of intimidation of juries. This Bill will do nothing to ease intimidation of witnesses and indeed relatively recent legislation has already been introduced to counter this.”
He pointed out that the Bill contains 25 sections, many of them very complex and detailed.
“Enacting such fundamental legislation literally the week after it is published is likely to result in both policy and drafting errors which could be avoided if time is allowed for proper consideration and debate,” he said.
“The Law Society is requesting an opportunity to make detailed submission on this Bill. It will not be possible for the society to do this if the Bill is to be guillotined through the Oireachtas.”