Special Criminal Court hearings

ILA

How can people interested in attending the SCC find out the dates for hearings, as they don't appear to be listed in the Courts Service Legal Diary?

I assume that it's public, since the cases don't involve either Family Law, a secret manufacturing process or (in most cases) lunacy and therefore the public can go in and watch proceedings in line with Article 34.1.

walrusgumble

ILA wrote: »

How can people interested in attending the SCC find out the dates for hearings, as they don't appear to be listed in the Courts Service Legal Diary?

I assume that it's public, since the cases don't involve either Family Law, a secret manufacturing process or (in most cases) lunacy and therefore the public can go in and watch proceedings in line with Article 34.1.

As in the Old Green Street Court? Its now, on the top floor of the Criminal Courts in Parkgate.

I could be wrong, but there may not be too many cases heard in the SCC, thank god. The IRA and the like are keeping their heads down. There is / was talk of legislation coming in (think there has) of using this court for dealing with criminal gangs. It has not been invoked. Probably would know when its in the papers

ILA

With the rise in dissident republican activity I was hoping to get a gander at how this Court works in practice.

A few people from Waterford were put before it not too many weeks ago according to the newspapers, and another one was before it the yesterday or the day before, but I can't find any info or case list prior to the hearings.

Obviously given the nature of the cases it deals with, it probably doesn't want to divulge it's upcoming hearings too widely. However, that's no use to me.

coylemj

ILA wrote: »

Obviously given the nature of the cases it deals with, it probably doesn't want to divulge it's upcoming hearings too widely. However, that's no use to me.

The nature of the SCC is not to keep it's proceedings secret, it's to get around the problem that arises with jury trials where people (the jury) gets intimidated and so the decision as to guilt is given over to a tribunal of judges.

ILA

coylemj wrote: »

The nature of the SCC is not to keep it's proceedings secret, it's to get around the problem that arises with jury trials where people (the jury) gets intimidated and so the decision as to guilt is given over to a tribunal of judges.

Yep, I'm aware of it's structure and formation. But I'm still no closer to seeing it in practice. Would they have the cases listed in the new Criminal Courts of Justice building or should I just contact the Courts service enquiring about upcoming hearings?

coylemj

Those three lads arrested today in Castleisland for attempting to dig an ATM out of a bank are from NI, if there's even a suspicion that they're any flavour of real/continuity IRA they will be hauled up before the SCC, watch the papers and listen to RTE radio.

dermot_sheehan

ILA wrote: »

How can people interested in attending the SCC find out the dates for hearings, as they don't appear to be listed in the Courts Service Legal Diary?

I assume that it's public, since the cases don't involve either Family Law, a secret manufacturing process or (in most cases) lunacy and therefore the public can go in and watch proceedings in line with Article 34.1.

The Constitutional requirement that justice be administered in public does not apply to the Special Criminal Court (Art. 38.6) but the Special Criminal Court rules permit members of the public to attend unless the Court orders a case heard otherwise then in public.

The fact that cases are not listed on the courts.ie website might be due to security concerns in arranging for prisoners to be produced under guard at certain dates without that being broadcast on the internet.

Wolfe Tone

I would love to see a sitting of this.

ILA

gabhain7 wrote: »

The Constitutional requirement that justice be administered in public does not apply to the Special Criminal Court (Art. 38.6) but the Special Criminal Court rules permit members of the public to attend unless the Court orders a case heard otherwise then in public.

The fact that cases are not listed on the courts.ie website might be due to security concerns in arranging for prisoners to be produced under guard at certain dates without that being broadcast on the internet.

Thanks for that, gabhain.

It would be interesting to see, and it certainly sounds like the most interesting and controversial Court I've so far studied in my course, hence my interest in seeing it in operation.

coylemj

I attended several SCC trials in the Green St. courthouse back in the late 70s and to be honest it wasn't really a great spectacle, quite boring in fact.

The ironic thing about the SCC sitting in Green St. was that that particular courtroom has two sets of jury seats, up high left and right of the judges and facing one another, I was told that this was so that as soon as one trial ended, the jury for the next trial could be seated and ready for the 'off', they must have processed them in double-quick time whenever the original building was constructed.

The presiding judges as I'm sure you're aware are three judges, one each from the High Court, Circuit Court and District Court with the High Court judge presiding and sitting in the centre. The procedure is basically the same as an ordinary jury trial in the Central Criminal or Circuit Court except that for obvious reasons there is no argument in the absence of the jury since there is none!

In a normal criminal trial, the jury is often sent away while there is legal argument as to whether specific evidence can be presented to them or if it should be excluded for various reasons, such as that it was illegally obtained or because it was of such an emotional character that it might inflame opinion amongst the jury and turn them against the accused regardless of who happened to be standing in the dock.

In the SCC the judges are the jury and so they had the task of supposedly casting out of their minds any evidence which after legal argument should not be used in consideration of a verdict, an intellectual form of gymnastics. Most of the time in a trial is taken up with tedious technical evidence which would quickly put you to sleep.

dermot_sheehan

ILA wrote: »

Thanks for that, gabhain.

It would be interesting to see, and it certainly sounds like the most interesting and controversial Court I've so far studied in my course, hence my interest in seeing it in operation.

It's actually quite dry to watch, Jury trials in the Circuit or Central Criminal Courts are more interesting with more theatrics.

Nothing too controversial about it, it's expressly authorised by the constitution and a jury trial is neither a european convention right nor an international human right norm. Many countries with good human rights records have never had juries. It's something the domestic human rights industry gets worked up about, because, well, they have to find something to get worked up about don't they.