ANALYSIS:The setting up of a judicial council, albeit on an interim basis, has been a lengthy affair
IN MOST EU member states there is a judicial council, and in most common law countries there are judicial bodies to support and represent the judiciary.
The proposal to establish a judicial council in Ireland, which would provide for the education, training, representation and discipline of the judiciary, goes back to the late 1990s, when a committee established by the then chief justice, Mr Justice Liam Hamilton, and chaired by Mrs Justice Susan Denham, proposed it.
In 1999 the working group on a courts commission recommended setting up such a judicial council.
A report was drawn up by a committee established by then chief justice Mr Justice Ronan Keane to consider the issue further, and sent, along with a draft Judicial Council Bill, to the government in 2001.
The proposal was suspended during the Curtin affair, when Judge Brian Curtin of the Circuit Court was acquitted of a charge of possessing child pornography due to an error in the search warrant. Impeachment proceedings ensued, which were the subject of lengthy court challenges. Eventually he retired on health grounds.
A joint committee made up of a representative of the then chief justice, Mr Justice John Murray, and a civil servant from the Department of Justice worked on a draft Bill in 2009. The plan received fresh impetus in May 2010 when a conference of the judiciary approved the draft Bill.
However, they did so with the proviso that the complaints committee envisaged by the draft Bill only be established when digital audio recording was set up in all courts. This would permit complaints about judges’ conduct in court to be examined against a recording of the proceedings.
Three months later, in August 2010, the then minister for justice, Dermot Ahern, published the heads of a judicial council Bill. It provided for establishing a judicial council of the entire judiciary to promote high standards, efficiency and continued education among judges.
It would have a number of committees, including a judicial studies institute, to further education and to provide information to the public, including on sentencing, and establish judicial support committees.
The Bill also proposed establishing a separate judicial conduct committee, with lay participation, which would examine allegations against judges in relation to their conduct both on and off the bench and provide for a range of sanctions.
Under the Constitution, the dismissal of a judge remains the prerogative of the Oireachtas.
The judicial conduct committee would be made up of eight judges and three lay members appointed by the Government.
It would draw up draft guidelines for judicial ethics and conduct and make regulations setting procedures for the investigation of complaints. These would be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas.
The establishment of an interim judicial council brings this a step closer and will lead to the ending of one of the longest sagas in our legislative history.