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LRC is seeking broad discourse on treaty index

The Law Reform Commission (LRC) wants to enable and resource a discourse on the relevance of international law in the domestic sphere.

LRC Commissioner Donncha O’Connell, speaking at the 18 July 2018 launch of the ‘Draft Inventory of International Agreements Entered Into by the State’, appealed for input from all relevant parties.

He said the LRC is seeking to aid public debate with its compilation of four hundred entries on international agreements in the draft inventory, which was launched at the LRC offices in Upper Hatch Street in Dublin 2.

In particular, the LRC is seeking assistance on whether any of the entries need to be adjusted in any way and whether the corresponding domestic legislation relating to an international agreement is correct.

“We freely acknowledge that there are gaps which need to be filled and that’s where our legal colleagues can play a part,” said Commissioner Carmel Stewart,  at the launch.

James Kingston, legal advisor at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,  said that a huge amount of research work has gone into the draft inventory, known as “project 10”, as part of the LRC’s fourth programme of law reform.

Treaty office

He said that his department includes a treaty office which gathers information on international agreements which Ireland has signed. The treaty office then disseminates these through publishing the Irish Treaty Series on its website.

“Our key task is to lay international agreements, to which the state is party, before Dáil Eireann, as mandated by Article 29.5 of the Constitution, ” he said. 

The draft inventory publishes information on treaties signed but not yet ratified by the state, and treaties ratified but not yet in force. It also presents the information under subject headings, linked to the headings in the LRC’s classified list of in-force legislation.

James Kingston said a particularly interesting and important feature of the draft inventory is the information provided on legislation linked to international agreements.

'Dualist state'

Ireland is a “dualist” as opposed to “monist” state, in that international agreements only become part of domestic law where the Oireachtas so determines.

“Ireland as a state is committed to international law, and therefore seeks to have in place all necessary domestic implementation measures before becoming party to any given international agreement,” said Kingston.

“Sometimes it’s possible very clearly to identify a link between an agreement and a piece of legislation,” he said, citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Immunities which is given effect in Irish law by the Diplomatic Relations and Immunities Act of 1967.

Domestic measures

In other instances, there are no implementing domestic measures in place. These may not be required since Ireland can give effect to its obligations through a combination of constitutional provisions, legislation and case law.

Commissioner O’Connell said that the LRC has a deep commitment to a comparative approach to research and uses international law as a benchmark to add credibility to its recommendations for law reform.

The draft inventory is a new departure for the LRC in that it is descriptive rather than prescriptive and seeks to open the topics for discussion and analysis without itself taking a position on whether Ireland should ratify treaties or not.

“Project 10” aims to be exhaustive and to cover all forms of expression of consent to be bound by an international agreement, whether signed or ratified. It seeks to provide information on relevant international instruments to the public, businesses, lawyers, policy-makers and judges. It also is a signpost to the future in showing what the landscape may be like in the years to come, Commissioner O’Connell said.

The draft inventory also includes agreements not entered into force globally because they don’t have the requisite ratifications, and announced agreements.

The LRC is seeking submissions and comments on the working draft to the email address p4p10@lawreform.ie

“How we will get this to a level of reliability and credibility is through input [from] government departments, statutory bodies, NGOs, academic experts…as much information as possible would be great,” Commissioner O’Connell concluded.