Backing of Warrants (Republic of Ireland) Act 1965
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1966.tb01116.x |
| Date | 01 March 1966 |
| Published date | 01 March 1966 |
186
THE
MODERN
LAW
REVIEW
VOL.
29
our ignotance about them-are quite insufficiently recognised
in legislative debate.”
The duration of the life of the Act for five years
“
unless
Parliament by aflirmative resolutions of both Houses otherwise
determines
”
(8.
4)
will at least provide an opportunity for dissipat-
ing some of our ignorance about the nature of homicide. Already
three well-known figures in the field of criminology have announced
a
detailed research project, backed by access to official Ales, into the
sociology and psychopathology of homicide,
1057-1967.
Perhaps
when Parliament comes to reconsider the topic in
1970
there will be
a
more enlightened discussion, and the opinions
will
be better
informed.
In the meantime the public will watch anxiously for any
perceptible shifts in the murder rate. Already some ugly homicides
have led to petitions to constituency
M.P.8
for the return of the
death penalty. Some of the agitation might be reflected in
a
provision, written into the Act at the instance of the Lord Chief
Justice, which expressly permits the trial judge at the time
of
passing the mandatory life sentence to
‘‘
declarc the period which
it
[the Court] recommends to the Secretary of State
as
the minimum
period which in its view should elapse before
. .
.
the release
of
that
person
on
licence
.
. .”
(8.
1 (1)).
On
one
or
two occasions
since the Act trial judges have recommended minimum periods of
ateen years in prison.
If
such recommendations-which inciden-
tally could have been made even before the
1905
Act gave its
legislative blessing to the practice-satisfy public anxiety at too
early release of murderers, the demand for the return of the
hangman may to that extent be assuaged.
Given the hypothesis that the death penalty is
an
irrelevance
to the rate of murder in society, few feeling persons will mourn the
passing of the hangman’s noose, consigned finally to the museum
along with the rack, the thumbscrew, and scold’s bridle. The
dismantling of the gallows from
our
prisons may at least mark
an
historic event in penal reform, even
if
the social significance of
hanging was
far
outweighed by the moral heat that
it
engendered
in public and private debate these last forty years.
L.
J.
BLOM-COOPER.
BACKING
OF
WARRANT8
(REPUBLIC
OF
IRELAND)
ACT
1065
WITHIN
a
few months of each other the House
of
Lords, for highly
technical reasons, and the Irish Supreme Court, for deep constitu-
tional reasons, held that the regime established in the nineteenth
century for the backing of English
and
Irish warrants had not
survived the establishment
of
the independent Republic of Ireland.’
1
R.
v.
Melropolitan
Polioe
Commissioner, ex
p.
Hammond
[1004]
2
All
E.R.
772,
noted
(1004) 27
M.L.R.
721;
The
Stale
(Quinn)
v.
Rgan
and Otlrcrs,
Irish
Times,
Augunt
1, 1904.
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