D.I.Y. JUSTICE IN IRELAND - Prosecuting by Common Informer

D.I.Y. JUSTICE IN IRELAND - Prosecuting by Common Informer
Author: Stephen T Manning
Publisher:
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2016-06-06
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781906628734

Ireland's justice system is in moral crisis. Rampant nepotism, cronyism and other forms of corruption have ensured that many who inhabit the corridors of power are getting away with serious and repeated wrongdoing with apparent impunity. It remains an open secret here in Ireland that if the perpetrators of crime are in any way 'connected' or in the pay of the State, that our justice system is far more likely to throw up a wall of protection and denials around them - than to expose and prosecute them. This is where this little book comes in. This book details a free and simple legal process whereby you or I can take immediate and effective action against any other person who commits a crime against us. And if that other person happens to be a Garda, a lawyer, an 'Officer of the Court' or a Government Minister - well, all the more reason perhaps to take firm and immediate action - right? This latest Integrity Ireland publication focuses on the little-known but long-established Common Informer legislation and how the ordinary citizen can prosecute others without having to rely on the Gardai or the Office of the DPP. YOU can prosecute ANYONE as long as you have proof of a criminal offence. You do NOT need to go to the Gardai. You do NOT need a solicitor or a barrister. And best of all, the process is free! This book explains all you need to know, including a breakdown of recent Supreme Court rulings and a step-by-step explanation of the process, as well as all those things you need to watch out for as 'they' do their utmost to deny us justice. This little book - and the process it explains - could well prove to be the proverbial 'Achilles heel' of a very unjust, justice system."

The Presumption of Innocence in Irish Criminal Law

The Presumption of Innocence in Irish Criminal Law
Author: Claire Hamilton (Barrister)
Publisher: Justice in Controversy
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN:

The right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty has been described as the 'golden thread' running through the web of English criminal law and a "fundamental postulate" of Irish criminal law which enjoys constitutional protection. Reflecting on the bail laws in the O'Callaghan case, Walsh J. described the presumption as a 'very real thing and not simply a procedural rule taking effect only at the trial'. The purpose of this book is to consider whether the reality matches the rhetoric surrounding this central precept of our criminal law and to consider its efficacy in the light of recent or proposed legislative innovations. Considerable space is devoted to the anti-crime package introduced by the government in the period of heightened concern about crime which followed the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. Described by the Bar Council as "the most radical single package of alterations to Irish criminal law and procedure ever put together, " the effect of the package was an amendment of the bail laws and the introduction of preventative detention; a curtailment of the right to silence for those charged with serious drugs offences and the introduction of a novel civil forfeiture process to facilitate the seizure of the proceeds of crime, a development which arguably circumvents the presumption. Given these developments, the question posed in the book is whether we can lay claim to a presumption that is more than merely theoretical or illusory.