A Century of Courts: The Courts of Justice Act 1924

Niamh Howlin

• Publisher: Four Courts Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781801511698
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Irish History
• Index: History

The Courts of Justice Act 1924 established the District Court, Circuit Court, High Court and Supreme Court. This book brings together legal scholars, historians and members of the judiciary, to reflect on the legacies of the 1924 Act. Making use of a range of sources and methodologies, the authors analyse the establishment of a new judiciary and some of the challenges facing the new legal order. This book reflects on some of the innovations in the 1924 Act and it includes comparative analysis of courts in other jurisdictions. It traces the position of the Irish language in the courts and considers how both the symbolism and the realities of the new courts were perceived in Irish society.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Abbreviations
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Reflecting on a century of Irish courts
• 2. Ireland in 1924: the historical context
• 3. The Dáil courts and opposition to the Courts of Justice Act 1924
• 4. The ‘judicial interregnum’, 1922–4: the new Constitution in the old courts
• 5. Comfortably housed? The law courts at Dublin Castle, 1923–31
• 6. Establishing judicial independence
• 7. A balanced judiciary: the early appointments to the superior and Circuit Courts
• 8. The introduction of a retirement age for judges
• 9. Remuneration of judges under the 1924 Act
• 10. ‘On the fly and on the sly’: a District Court in action
• 11. The District Court, 1924–20 24: ‘big bang’ 100 years on
• 12. ‘Illegal, immoral and unpatriotic’: cross-border smuggling and the courts
• 13. ‘Twenty-six high courts’: the Circuit Court, decentralisation and its opponents, 1924–34
• 14. The expanding role of the Circuit Court judge
• 15. The role of the president of the High Court
• 16. Who would be a chief justice?
• 17. The Supreme Court and the winter of 1936–7
• 18. Where were the women?
• 19. The Courts of Justice Act 1924 and the Irish language in the courtroom
• 20. Section 29 of the Courts of Justice Act 1924 and the certification process: a long-lasting legacy
• 21. Appeal routes in Northern Ireland
• 22. The Courts of Justice Act in comparative perspective: Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Irish nationalism, and ‘transplanted Britons’
• ‘A new order in this country’:symbolism and the new courts
• Appendices
• Bibliography
• Table of Statutes
• Index
• The Irish Legal History Society Series
• The Irish Legal History Society