Crime in a jurisdiction which no longer exists.

JumpShivers

If my understanding is correct, indictable crimes in Ireland include crime such as murder, rape, sexual assault, perjury, terrorism etc. These crimes are not subject to the statute of limitations and a person can be brought to justice even fifty years later.

Suppose a person commits a crime in Belfast today (a murder or a rape or other indictable offence). Twenty years later we have a united Ireland and a complaint is made against the person. Will the person be charged under Irish law or will they be answerable to the Crown Court and have to go to a court in mainland Britain (as Belfast would have been in the UK when it was committed).

Just to clarify, the crime is hypothetically committed today in 2016 and the hypothetical court case is arising in 2030's

L1011

In this hypothetical situation, the (likely reformed entirely as a new state in so far as there'd be a new constitution etc) Ireland would be considered the successor to both ROI and NI. Offences which occurred in the relevant side pre 1922 but had delayed trials for whatever reason were tried in the successors at that time, for instance.

GerardKeating

L1011 wrote: »

In this hypothetical situation, the (likely reformed entirely as a new state in so far as there'd be a new constitution etc) Ireland would be considered the successor to both ROI and NI. Offences which occurred in the relevant side pre 1922 but had delayed trials for whatever reason were tried in the successors at that time, for instance.

Some states (France for example) will try crimes against it citizens committed in other jurisdictions, hence their attempts to have Ian Bailey extradited to France in relation to the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in Cork, so in this hypothetical case, other options exist depending on the victim.

Water John

You also had 'republican courts' (not the modern version) sitting in 1920/21.
I know a land issue on our farm that was adjudicated on and the resolution stuck and was implemented, even in modern times.

Did the country legally exist in 1920/21?

icdg

JumpShivers wrote: »

If my understanding is correct, indictable crimes in Ireland include crime such as murder, rape, sexual assault, perjury, terrorism etc. These crimes are not subject to the statute of limitations and a person can be brought to justice even fifty years later.

Suppose a person commits a crime in Belfast today (a murder or a rape or other indictable offence). Twenty years later we have a united Ireland and a complaint is made against the person. Will the person be charged under Irish law or will they be answerable to the Crown Court and have to go to a court in mainland Britain (as Belfast would have been in the UK when it was committed).

Just to clarify, the crime is hypothetically committed today in 2016 and the hypothetical court case is arising in 2030's

A court in England and Wales or Scotland doesn't usually have jurisdiction to try a crime committed in NI even today. There is only one court with jurisdiction over the entire UK and that is the Supreme Court and it's jurisdiction is almost entirely appellate. Every other court is a court of England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. The Crown Court in Northern Ireland is a different court with different judges to its English counterpart.

The answer is likely to be that they would be tried under the law existing at the time the offence was committed by whatever court which presently has jurisdiction to try the offence concerned in the hypothetical situation you envisage.

Even if there were any other problems however, the Criminal Law Jurisidiction Act 1976 allows certain offences committed in NI to be prosecuted in the State in certain circumstances.

Manach

Straying from the jurisdiction , having read an account of the breakup of the Soviet Union (Final Empire) : it was part of the dissolution of the central entity into the constituent republics that the various legal laws and legacies were written into the successor states. Thus in OP's scenario, this would be a precedent?

icdg

Article 50.1 of our own Constitution provides much the same thing. You rarely have instances of jurisdictions "starting afresh", every law that was in force in Saorstat Eireann on 28th December 1937 was still in force in Ireland on 29th December subject to the extent that it was not inconsistent with the constitution.