Liam Hamilton

Liam Hamilton ( b. 1928; † 29 November 2000) was an Irish judge, president of the High Court and 1994-2000 Chief Justice ( Chief Justice ) of the Supreme Court

Biography

After attending the Christian Brothers ' School in Michel Town, he studied law at UCD in Dublin and the King's Inns. As the best student in the final year of study, he received a scholarship ( John Brooke Scholarship ) and in 1956 admitted to the bar. After a few years of practical legal practice, he was in 1968 appointed to the Inner Bar, and thus to Senior Counsel.

1974 saw his appointment as a Judge of the High Court, the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Ireland, which he became president in 1985 as a successor of Thomas Finlay.

During this time he was a respected President of the Special Criminal Court and led a number of significant criminal proceedings as the proceedings in the Sallins Train Robbery in 1976, the case against the assassin of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma in County Sligo in 1979 and against the Eskund gun runner.

The other major decisions during his tenure at the High Court include the fundamental decisions in the process Murphy v. Attorney General from 1982, in which he stated that the joint taxation of married couples would be contrary to the Constitution of Ireland, and the procedure Kennedy v. Ireland from 1987, which showed the state borders in the interference in the private lives of its citizens. In 1991 he also became a member of a government-appointed and until 1994 working Tribunal ( " Tribunal Beef " ) to investigate allegations of illegal acts, fraud and malpractice in the beef processing industry.

In 1994 he was appointed Chief Justice of Ireland. Among the most important decisions in these areas was 1995, the confirmation of a statutory provision for obtaining information from private bodies and abortion clinics across the state. Another fundamental decision resulted from the method TF v. Ireland, through the recognition of the irretrievable breakdown of marriage as a ground for judicial separation and thus an important part of Irish law and social history was made.

After his retirement as Chief Justice in 2000, he was elected a member of the Commission for the Investigation of bombings in Dublin, Dundalk and Monaghan in 1976. However, from this position, he joined shortly thereafter for health reasons and died a few months later.