Courts of Justice Act 1924

The framework for the 1924 act was the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State, which specified two superior courts, the High Court and Supreme Court, and allowed for lower courts. As a transitory measure, the Constitution allowed the pre-independence courts to continue until the new courts were established by statute. The previous superior courts, established for all Ireland by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 and again for Southern Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, had largely continued to function during the Irish War of Independence. Lower-level British-aligned courts, such as the assizes and county courts, had been severely disrupted by the rival Dáil Courts of the separatist Irish Republic. During the Irish Civil War, the Provisional Government suspended the Dáil Courts as too sympathetic to its republican opponents, but without entirely reviving the British system. Initially martial law was applied, and later District Courts were created on a temporary basis.^[1]

In early 1923, the Executive Council established a committee to advise on the permanent courts system. The members were appointed on the advice of Hugh Kennedy, the Attorney-General. It was chaired by James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy, then Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann and formerly Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Other members were Kennedy; government-aligned barristers John O'Byrne and Timothy Sullivan; District Court judge Louis Joseph Walsh; pre-independence judges Charles O'Connor and William John Johnston; Dáil Court judges James Creed Meredith and Cahir Davitt; solicitors P. J. Brady and Henry Murphy; and businessman William Hewat. Mícheál Smidic (Michael Smithwick) was secretary.^[2] The committee submitted its report in May, which was unanimous although less of a departure from the British model than Kennedy would have preferred.

The Courts of Justice Bill, closely following the Glenavy Committee's recommendations, was introduced in Dáil Éireann on 31 July 1923 but lapsed when the Dáil was dissolved in August for a general election. The bill was reintroduced in the new Dáil on 20 September 1923 and given royal assent by the Governor-General on 12 April 1924.

The jurisdiction of all of the courts then sitting in the Irish Free State was transferred to the new courts created by the Act:

• The Court of Appeal was replaced by the Supreme Court of Justice and a Court of Criminal Appeal.
• The High Court of Justice was replaced by a new court with the same name and similar jurisdiction. However, the new court was no longer divided into separate divisions (i.e. the King's Bench and Chancery divisions). The President of the High Court replaced the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland as chief judge of this court.
• The assizes were replaced, in Dublin, by the Central Criminal Court. Outside Dublin they were intended to be replaced by courts of the High Court Circuit, but this was never constituted.
• The jurisdiction of the Quarter Sessions and the county courts was merged into a single Circuit Court of Justice.
• The jurisdiction of the temporary district justices and the divisional magistrates of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Court was merged into a single District Court of Justice, which could also try minor civil matters. The temporary district justices had been introduced in 1923 to replace petty sessions, which had not been held for some years in much of Ireland due to the War of Independence.

The offices of justice of the peace and resident magistrate were permanently abolished. As a result, there would in principle no longer be any lay magistrates in the Irish Free State: all judges would be legally qualified and would work full-time. However, the lay office of peace commissioner was created to exercise some of the functions of magistrates. Section 88(2) of the Act also required that a Peace Commission for a county in the Gaeltacht should "have a knowledge of the Irish language adequate for the transaction of the business of his office in that language".

All criminal prosecutions would now take place in the name of the People at the suit of the Attorney General, rather than The King as had previously been the case.^{[citation needed]}

The Act did not affect the right of appeal from the Free State to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.

Only two judges of the superior courts under the old court system were appointed to the courts established under the 1924 act: Charles O'Connor, who had been Master of the Rolls in Ireland from 1912, was appointed to the Supreme Court, and William Wylie was appointed to the High Court. The rest chose to avail of the act's early-retirement provisions. Of former County Court judges, two were appointed to the High Court and three to the Circuit Court.^[3]

• Courts of the Republic of Ireland
• Dáil Courts#Winding up