Chief Justice: Laws need to be written with ‘greater clarity’

Chief Justice: Laws need to be written with 'greater clarity'

The Chief Justice of Ireland, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, has called on parliamentarians to write laws with “greater clarity” on their meaning.

He issued the “cry” for clarity while speaking at the launch of the Courts Service of Ireland annual report yesterday, according to The Irish Times.

He said the intentions of legislators were often unclear, particularly in the areas of planning and environmental law.

Mr Chief Justice Clarke said: “The solution lies at least as much in the hands of legislators in producing greater clarity as it does in the courts and, from my perspective, lies even more on the legislative side.”

He warned that increasingly complex planning laws could trouble projects “which, even though they may successfully clear all hurdles at the end of the day, may suffer by being held up for too long”.

He emphasised that he was not criticising the content of laws, which is “not a judge’s business”, but issuing “a cry for clearer legislation which will make the resolution of litigation easier and therefore quicker”.

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