Open field doctrine

Victor

How does this apply in Ireland? For various matters - search warrants, torts of trespass, invasion of privacy, etc.?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-fields_doctrine

Grolschevik

Can't open it on my phone, but there might be some relevant info in the cover story here...

http://www.lawsociety.ie/News/Gazette/Issues/AugustSeptember-2014/#.VMUDlJ7p1zQ

conorh91

I've never heard of the open-fields doctrine before, and I'm not aware of this having been considered by the courts here.

Although land rights are pretty much sacred across the Anglosphere and Ireland, successive Governments have in this country made considerable inroads into to the right to enter land, including commercial property, as opposed to a private dwelling, without a warrant.

So for example, the Department of Agriculture inspectors monitor farmland by coming onto it without a warrant, the District Veterinary officers may enter slaughterhouses and farm buildings without warrants, and Gardai may lawfully enter land under the Social Welfare Acts for the purposes of detecting welfare fraud.

But trespass to land remains very much a part of our laws aside from those exceptions, be it land in the sense of a dwelling or physical land.

I'd suggest the open-fields doctrine is completely inapplicable here.