Irish Criminal Trials and European Legal Culture: A Backdrop to Brexit

Abstract

This paper explores select themes relating to legal culture in European criminal justice post-Brexit by focusing on aspects of the common law trial process in the Irish courts. The incorporation of EU law and the ECHR within the domestic legal order has necessitated the nurturing of a constructive co-existence with the country’s longer standing constitutional and common law traditions. Ireland and the United Kingdom have collaborated closely as common law Member States and the departure of the UK from the EU will affect Ireland’s position in EU criminal justice in many and varied ways. Using the examples of victim participation in criminal trials and pre-trial access of suspects to legal assistance, the paper seeks to illuminate trends of consonance and dissonance in Ireland’s relationship with European law. Drawing on the shared commitment to the protection of fundamental rights in the EU and the ECHR, the discussion reflects on some of the longer term implications of Brexit for the common law presence in European criminal legal culture.