A v The Governor of Arbour Hill Prison: 10 Jul 2006

Supreme Court of Ireland
Murray CJ said: ‘[T]he retrospective effect of a judicial decision is excluded from cases already finally determined. This is the common law position … No one has ever suggested that every time there is a judicial adjudication clarifying or interpreting the law in a particular manner which could have had some bearing on previous and finally decided cases, civil or criminal, that such cases be reopened or the decisions set aside. It has not been suggested because no legal system comprehends such an absolute or complete retroactive effect of judicial decisions. To do so would render a legal system uncertain, incoherent and dysfunctional. Such consequences would cause widespread injustices.’

Judges:

Murray CJ, Denham J, McGuinness J, Hardiman J, Geoghegan J

Citations:

[2006] IESC 45, [2006] 2 ILRM 481, [2006] 4 IR 99

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedCadder v Her Majesty’s Advocate SC 26-Oct-2010
Statement without lawyer access was inadmissible
The accused complained that he had been convicted for assault and breach of the peace on the basis of a statement made by him during an interview with the police where, under the 1995 Act, he had been denied access to a lawyer.
Held: The . .
CitedGordon v Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (Scotland) SC 22-Mar-2017
The appellant the Commission’s decision not to refer his case back to the court. They had agreed that a miscarriage of justice might have occurred, but concluded that it was not in the interests of justice to make such a referral. His statement had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Constitutional, Human Rights

Updated: 25 July 2022; Ref: scu.640812