Law is one part of a set of processes, social, political, economic and cultural, which shape and direct the development of society. Like all other mechanisms the law seeks to govern human behaviour. The Irish law system belongs to common law systems established in England by the Norman’s. This type of law responded to actual rather than anticipated problems. In contrast the law in the civil system is contained in comprehensive codes which are enacted by legislators and which attempt to provide for every legal contingency. Case law or ‘la jurisprudence’ has lesser significance and lacks the quality of enjoying in the force of law.Sources of law include Common law, Legislation, Constitution, E.C law, Custom, Canon and international. The courts currently in operation are the District, Circuit, High, Special Criminal, Court of Criminal appeal and the Supreme Court. In the Constitution Articles 34 to37[which are headed ‘The Courts’] provide a broad outline regarding the structure of the court system and in terms of legal validity whatever structures exist must conform to the basic framework established by the Constitution. Article 34.1states that ‘justice shall be administered in courts established by law by Judges appointed in the manner provided by this Constitution, and, save in such special and limited cases as prescribed by the law, shall be administered in public’. This signifies that the Irish Constitution has adopted the principle that the administration of justice must be assigned to a separate arm of government, in accordance with the doctrine of the separation of powers which was central to the American and French revolutions of the eighteenth century. The significant feature of Articles 34 to 36 of the Constitution is that they refer specifically to the High Court and Supreme Court. By mentioning these it has shown that these courts have special status. These courts are the ...
