The Irish Constitution: Explained by Darrell FiggisFiggis, Darrell
History
The Irish Constitution: Explained by Darrell Figgis
Figgis, Darrell
Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1922-1949
The first of these three organic parts, obviously, is the Legislature,
since laws cannot be executed or interpreted until they first exist. The
second, equally obviously, is the Executive, since laws, having come into
existence, must first be put into execution before they can be liable to
interpretation, or before they can be said to require enforcement. But
when a Legislature and an Executive have been brought into existence, as
necessary organisations for a people's government of themselves, a
Judicial organisation at once becomes necessary. For no law can so be made
as of itself to fit each particular case. Laws, by their nature, are of
general meaning, and must be interpreted to the particular instance where
its construction is questioned. And there is (unhappily) no law that is
not sometimes altogether challenged, and set at defiance, when therefore
the law made by the people at large must be enforced on the individual,
and its defiance punished.
Unfortunately few people regard their Judicature with the same pride of
possession with which they (sometimes) regard the Legislature, and even
the Executive. Even when folk disapprove of their law-makers and their
ministers, they disapprove because they conceive they have acted
mistakenly on their behalf, whereas they conceive of judges as having
acted from a malignancy inborn in them or in the system, with the kind of
disapproval reserved for those who are created and are destined to act
against their behalf. That is--in most countries, and especially in
Ireland--a legacy from evil days, when judges were not the people's
judges, but whips sent forth through the land by some person who claimed
to be sovereign. With the reversal of sovereignty, however, the judges
become the people's judges; the courts are the people's courts, where the
laws of their own making are interpreted; the judicial system is the
people's system; and it is for the people to insist that this attitude is
observed, not only by them, but by those who interpret the laws and
administer justice. For, under the Constitution, no judge sits in any
court in the land save by an authority bestowed on him by the people, in
the Constitution which they confer on themselves. And it is for the people
to remember that fact; for only by that memory will it be recognised in
the courts themselves--and, indeed, only thus will it deserve to be
recognised there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account