Emergency Law in Ireland 1918-1925

ISBN-13: 9780198256755 / Angielski / Twarda / 1994 / 454 str.

Colm Campbell

Opis

The years 1918-1925 were the most turbulent in recent Irish history, a time of momentous constitutional change and widespread political unrest. Faced with armed insurrection and revolutionary claims to democratic legitimacy, the British government responded with increasingly harsh emergency powers. These measures provided the model for the governments which emerged following the partition of the country into the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland.In this scholarly and compelling book Dr Colm Cambell offers a detailed legal analysis of emergency powers and assesses their impact upon the outcome of political conflicts. Drawing upon extensive archival materials, the author examines the effect of emergency law on the battle for legitimacy in three jurisdictions: Ireland under British rule 1918-1921; the Irish Free State 1922-25; and Northern Ireland 1921-25.By identifying and discussing three core areas of emergency law in all three jurisdictions, such as special powers of arrest and detention, special courts and internment without trial, the author brings out the historical continuity in the development of these powers. The role of the judiciary in co-operating with laws which helped to marginalize them is also discussed.Carefully researched and cogently argued, this book will appeal not only to historians but also to constitutional lawyers, political scientists, and scholars interested in civil liberaties and the history of laws relating to political violence.

This is an original and scholarly account of the operation of emergency law in Ireland in the years 1918-25. Arguably among the most turbulent in recent Irish history, the period 1918-1925 witnessed extraordinary political change and social unrest. The response of successive governments in three jurisdictions to the threat posed by politically motivated violence was to declare states of emergency, in which the authorities were granted wide-ranging powers of arrest; people were detained without trial; and suspected terrorists were tried before specially created courts. The author offers a detailed legal analysis of the effectiveness of emergency law in Ireland, and concludes with observations on the effectiveness of emergency laws generally in the face of terrorism.

Recenzje

'masterly study...There can be little doubt that Dr Campbell's book, with its careful analysis of the political and military imperatives, will be a standard reference for its subject as well as a boon to researchers in this field...it is a work in which anyone remotely interested in human rights, both on a national and international scale, cannot fail to find valuable insights.'