Sir, – I was taught a long-lasting lesson in my secondary school science classes. When defining a word or term, that word or term cannot be used in the definition. To define “liquid” as “the liquid form of matter” is useless and creates a circular self-referring definition.
Section 2(1) of The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022, as passed by Dáil Éireann, defines hatred as “hatred against a person or a group of persons . . . “.
Criminal justice has a high bar of proof, proving beyond reasonable doubt. How can justice be done when the definition is so poor? Indeed, the Law Society in their January 2020 submission on the review of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, which suffers from the same definition problem as the proposed Bill, states “the 1989 Act does not provide an adequate definition of ‘hatred’”.
Perhaps the Government could do with heading back to school? Although they may hate the idea of it. – Yours, etc,
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Dr PAUL LAVIN,
Dublin 8.