University president says future Irish success relies on reassessment of our legal framework

It was unlikely Ireland could succeed in the long term without "a fundamental reassessment" of our legal framework, the president of Dublin City University told senior judges and lawyers yesterday.

In an address at the annual service at St Michan's Church of Ireland in Dublin to mark the opening of the Michaelmas law term, Prof Ferdinand von Prondzyinksi said: "It may be argued the overriding imperative of Ireland over the coming years - in which there will be a good number of economic and social uncertainties and ambiguities - will be to bring forward major reform to the understanding of law and the role of legal rules."

It was also arguable that economic and social objectives were frustrated by the frequency of litigation and its impact on non-litigants. "We may need to find other mechanisms to secure justice and the proper functioning of the social and economic order."

Prof von Prondzyinksi said the legal systems of many countries had emerged from the great theological movements of past centuries, resulting in an understanding of law "as both a sovereign concept requiring obedience and, at the same time, a source of wisdom and righteousness".

Lawyers tended to see themselves as not just applying a set of rules but also as dispensers of liberty and justice. But, he said: "We should be doubtful about whether liberty and justice are concepts to be 'handed down' rather than grown in society".

Modern society was hugely complex and great ethical issues needed to be resolved in the context of the practical needs of the world to feed its people and create enduring prosperity.

Those needs could not be met by religion, which adopted the basic idiom of an agrarian feudal society.

"Equally, a legal system which owes much of its ceremonial and a good deal of its content to the goal of establishing a system of political certainties and an established social order is going to find it hard to give proper support to today's ethical and practical needs.

"More significantly, a legal system which believes it can pronounce on what is right and what is wrong in very complex situations may find itself under fire." Even when the law adopted humane and liberal language and handed down enlightened judgments, its influence might still be questionable, he said.

Prof von Prondzyinski suggested theologians might find their voice in calling for justice while lawyers "can accept their proper role of servants of public policy and guarantors of rights.

Both can serve society by reminding us that life is complex and few things are certain."