Warning by Chief Justice of law drafted too hastily

Hastily-prepared legislation drafted under tight deadlines can cause more problems than it resolves, the Chief Justice has said…

Hastily-prepared legislation drafted under tight deadlines can cause more problems than it resolves, the Chief Justice has said. Mr Justice Murray said the courts have recently had to interpret statutes because they were weakly drafted.

"Of course I fully understand that words are in fact somewhat imprecise tools, and there will always be scope for debate or even controversy as to their meaning and effect in particular contexts and different situations."

However, he said the recent weaknesses "were slippages from the norm in the sense that they were patent and could readily have been avoidedGovernments and the Oireachtas have to understand that hastily-prepared legislation, sometimes under pressure of unreal deadlines, can in the longer term cause more problems than they resolve."

He was speaking last night at the launch of a consultation paper on duress and necessity published by the Law Reform Commission. The paper, a review of legislation on the question of the coercion of an individual into committing a crime, is part of a review of the criminal law.

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He spoke of recent social changes. "Most of it is positive, some of it is negative, very negative indeed. For present purposes I think it is sufficient to allude to the development of organised crime, the pervasiveness of the drug trade, itself a source and cause of other forms of criminal activity, and the pervasiveness of crimes of violence, often involving violence for its own sake."