Chief Justice: Increasingly complex legal system is ‘too unwieldy’

The Chief Justice of Ireland, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, has criticised the increasing complexity of the Irish legal system, with ever greater numbers of regulatory bodies and appeal mechanisms.

According to The Irish Times, Mr Justice Clarke made the remarks while addressing a Law Reform Commission conference focussed on the commission’s fifth programme of law reform.

He pointed out that there are, according to the Department of the Taoiseach, at least 99 bodies with regulatory powers in Ireland.

Mr Justice Clarke said the legal profession had got itself into a “significant mess” by seeming to create a new regulatory body “every time there is a new form of right or obligation”.

He added: “It’s far too unwieldy. I find it difficult not to believe that a more streamlined, straightforward and simplified system would make it much clearer for parties.”