Practice and Procedure - Attorney General for Northern Ireland's Reference

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
Judgment Date01 January 1976
Date01 January 1976
CourtHouse of Lords
(C.C.A.; H.L.)
Attorney General for Northern Ireland's Reference

Attorney - General's reference - Legislation coming into force - Making of rules of court safeguarding anonymity condition precedent -Whether valid rule-making power - Interpretation Act, 1889 (52 53 Vict. c. 63), s. 14 -Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act, 1968 (c.21) (as amended), ss. 48A, 49 (1) - Criminal Justice Act, 1972 (c. 71), ss. 63 (3) 66 (6) (b) -Murder - Soldier on patrol - Fleeing suspect shot - Honest and reasonable, though mistaken, belief that he was a terrorist - Reasonableness of force used a matter of fact and not of law.

By s. 49, sub-s. 1, of the Criminal Appeal (Northern Ireland) Act, 1968, rules might be made under s. 7, sub-s. 1, of the Northern Ireland Act, 1962 "for regulating generally the practice and procedure under Parts I and II of this Act and under Part III of this Act so far as relates to the Court of Criminal Appeal." By section 63 (3) of the Criminal Justice Act, 1972, there was to be inserted in Part IV of the Act of 1968 a new section, 48A, permitting the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland to refer a point of law to the Court of Criminal Appeal when a person tried on indictment had been acquitted. By subsection, 6 (b) of s. 66 of the Act of 1972, the section was not to come into force until provision had been made by rules of court with a view to preventing the disclosure of the identity of the acquitted person. By the Criminal Appeal (Reference of Points of Law) (Northern Ireland) Rules, 1973, the Northern Ireland Supreme Court Rules Committee made rules for that purpose, expressed to be made under s. 7 of the Northern Ireland Act, 1962, s. 49 of the Act of 1968 and "all other powers enabling us in that behalf." A British soldier on patrol in Northern Ireland in the exercise of his duty under s. 3 of the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland), 1967, to prevent crime, while searching for terorists, shot and killed an unarmed man, who ran away when challenged, in the honest and reasonable, though mistaken, belief that he was a terrorist. A judge, sitting without a jury, acquitted him of murder holding that he had no conscious intention to kill or seriously injure and that the killing was justifiable homicide. On an Attorney-General's reference of two questions to the Court of Criminal Appeal the court (Jones and Gibson L.JJ., McGonigal L.J. dissenting): Held (1) that the facts and circumstances set out in the reference were sufficient to raise the...

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5 cases
  • Finucane v McMahon
    • Ireland
    • Supreme Court
    • 13 March 1990
    ...ACT 1987 EXTRADITION (CONVENTION & SUPRESSION OF TERRORISM) ACT 1987 CONSTITUTION ART 2 CONSTITUTION ART 3 MCELHONE CASE 1977 AC 105, 1976 NI 169 CONSTITUTION ART 28.3.3 EXTRADITION TO NORTHERN IRELAND: PROSPECTS & PROBLEMS MLR V52 P585 CRIMINAL LAW (JURISDICTION) ACT 1976 EXTRADITION (EUR......
  • R (Bennett) v HM Coroner for Inner South London
    • United Kingdom
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 26 June 2007
    ... ... as to whether he acted reasonably by reference to the facts as he honestly believed them to be, ... ...
  • Attorney General (S.P.U.C.) v Open Door Counselling Ltd
    • Ireland
    • High Court
    • 19 December 1986
    ...ACT 1967 S5(2) AG V ABLE 1984 1 AER 277, 1984 QB 795, 1983 3 WLR 845 AG V LOGAN 1891 2 QB 100 AG'S REFERENCE (NO 1/1975) 1975 2 AER 684, 1976 NI 169 BAIL BONDS ACT 1803 BYRNE V IRELAND 1972 IR 241 C DIR 73/148/EEC CALDWELL V PAGHAN HARBOUR RECLAMATION CO 1876 2 CH 221 45 LJ CH 796 CONSTITUT......
  • Re Curran and McCann
    • United Kingdom
    • Queen's Bench Division (Northern Ireland)
    • 1 January 1985
    ...Ireland. Australian Communist Party v. The CommonwealthUNK (1951) 83 C.L.R. 1 and Attorney General for Northern Ireland's ReferenceDNI [1976] N.I. 169 followed. ...
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