Max Barrett (judge) explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Hon. Mr. Justice
Office:Judge of the High Court
Term Start:8 January 2014
Nominator:Government of Ireland
Appointer:Michael D. Higgins
Nationality:Irish

Max Barrett (born 1971) is an Irish judge who has served as a Judge of the High Court since January 2014.

Legal career

Barrett is a graduate of law from Trinity College Dublin, as well as having a first-class honours MA in literature from Dublin City University and an accredited arbitrator.[1] He obtained a PhD in law having won a full scholarship to the University of Salford in 1992.[2] Barrett trained as a solicitor with McCann FitzGerald, qualifying in 2001. He subsequently worked as a solicitor in Bailhache Labesse, Bank of Ireland and as Head of Legal in Rabobank. He became Head of Legal at Danske Bank Ireland in 2007. Following the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank in 2010, he was appointed company secretary,[3] a role he continued in its successor Irish Bank Resolution Corporation until 2012.[4] He was Head of Legal at SEB International Assurance until his appointment as a judge.[5]

Barrett has written several legal texts on financial law, a series of case-law indices published by Blackstones and a book on the judicial functions of the House of Lords, published by Palgrave MacMillan,[6] as well as The Art and Craft of Judgment Writing: A Primer for Common Law Judges, and more recently, Great Legal Writing: Lessons from Literature, both published by Globe Law.[7]

Judicial career

Barrett was appointed to the High Court in January 2014.[8] He is one of the youngest judges to have been appointed in Ireland,[9] as well as being one of only five to have continued his studies to doctoral level.[10] He is also one of the most prolific, having delivered as many as 459 written judgments in under five years by early December 2020.[11] He has heard cases involving defamation law, judicial review, injunctions, the law of tort, company law, competition law and family law.[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] Barrett has been critical of high fees generated by legal professionals and argued that a systemic solution is needed to tackle the "crushing cost" of High Court litigation.[18]

As of 2021, he was the judge in charge of competition law matters in the High Court.[19]

Environmental cases

In Merriman v. Friends of the Irish Environment (2017), Barrett held that an unenumerated right to the environment exists in the Irish constitution, arising out of a case regarding extending planning permission for a runway at Dublin Airport.[20] The case has not been overruled. However, the now-retired Chief Justice Frank Clarke did note in a 2020 Supreme Court decision that such a right had not yet been established by the Supreme Court and argued it was of a "very vague nature".[21] [22] The conservative approach taken by the Clarke Supreme Court contrasted markedly with the approach adopted by courts in many other jurisdictions, however, including the German Federal Constitutional Court, which has held national climate targets and permitted emissions to have violated fundamental rights.[23]

Immigration, international protection and citizenship

In A v. Minister for Justice and Equality (2019), Barrett set aside a decision of the Minister for Justice and Equality which refused an application for family reunification, on the basis that a section of the International Protection Act 2015 was unconstitutional. Section 56(9)(a) did not recognise marriages of refugees for family reunification purposes which took place after arriving in Ireland.[24] Although the case was concerned with a heterosexual marriage, it also impacted positively on LGBT+ couples who may not have been in a position to marry in countries of initial origin where same-sex marriage is not legal.[25]

Jones v Minister for Justice and Equality (2019) was the subject of some political focus.[26] [27] Barrett refused to hold the Minister had been wrong in law to refuse the application for naturalisation of an Australian citizen who had been outside Ireland for 100 days prior to his application. The ruling held that the requirement in the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 for one year's continuous residence for the period prior to an application must be given a literal reading, and concluded that there was no basis for the Department of Justice and Equality's discretionary policy of permitting six weeks absence from Ireland.[28]

The implied effect of the judgment anyone seeking Irish citizenship would become ineligible if they broke the chain of one year's continuous residence. Researcher Conor O’Neill observed[29] however that exactly this approach had been intended by the Government of the 15th Dáil. Barrett expressly anticipated in his judgment that it was for the Oireachtas to amend the legislation. The Court of Appeal subsequently dismissed an appeal from Barrett's ruling, noting that the trial judge had correctly concluded that the Minister's ‘finding’ was neither materially wrong nor irrational.[30] but also held by majority that the lower court ruling on the construction of the legislation requiring unbroken residence in Ireland had been "overly literal", and set the ruling aside in that one respect.[31] [32] Because of the latter finding, any need for legislation (which the Minister had indicated would, if needed, be adopted "as an urgent priority") did not arise.[33]

Heritage-related cases

In a 2016 case involving the relatives of the Easter Rising, he declared that Moore Street was a National Monument in 2016 in a 399-page judgment.[34] Though welcomed by campaigners and some politicians, the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2018.[35] Fully four years after this ruling, Barrett wrote a letter to the editor of The Irish Times expressing his disappointment of what he felt was a lack of vision by the authorities for Moore Street.[36] The since-retired President of the High Court Peter Kelly was privately critical of this.[37] [38]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Appointments to the High Court . Irish Government News Service . 16 May 2019 . 18 December 2013 . 16 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190516220425/https://merrionstreet.ie/en/News-Room/Releases/appointments-to-the-high-court-2.html . live .
  2. Barrett . Max . A Tale of two Countries . Hibernian Law Journal . 2000 . 1 . 1 . 23–44.
  3. Barrett recused himself from a debt action in 2017 on the grounds of his previous employment with Anglo Irish Bank, and ordered that the case be reheard.News: Quinlan . Ronald . Judge's stint at Anglo leads to debt rehearing . 16 May 2019 . Irish Independent . 30 July 2017 . 16 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190516220426/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/judges-stint-at-anglo-leads-to-debt-rehearing-35980632.html . live .
  4. News: Ex-Anglo manager now High Court judge . 16 May 2019 . . 18 December 2013 . 16 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190516220428/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/exanglo-manager-now-high-court-judge-29847683.html . live .
  5. News: O'Carroll . Sinead . Former Head of Legal at Danske Bank appointed to High Court . 16 May 2019 . TheJournal.ie . 17 December 2013 . 16 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190516220425/https://www.thejournal.ie/high-court-appointments-1227282-Dec2013/ . live .
  6. Book: Barrett . Max . The Law Lords : An Account of the Workings of Britain's Highest Judicial Body and the Men Who Preside Over it . 24 November 2000 . Palgrave MacMillan . 9780333725191.
  7. https://www.globelawandbusiness.com/books/the-art-and-craft-of-judgment-writing-a-primer-for-common-law-judges and https://www.globelawandbusiness.com/books/great-legal-writing-lessons-from-literature
  8. Web site: President Appoints Judges of the High Court . President.ie . 16 May 2019 . 16 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190516220427/https://president.ie/en/news/article/president-appoints-judges-of-the-high-court-1 . live .
  9. News: Bohan . Christine . Here are the three new judges appointed to the High Court today . 16 May 2019 . TheJournal.ie . 8 January 2014 . 16 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190516220428/https://www.thejournal.ie/new-high-court-judges-1254870-Jan2014/ . live .
  10. The others are Gerard Hogan (judge of the Supreme Court), Richard Humphreys, Michael Twomey (judge of the High Court) and John O'Connor (judge of the Circuit Court).
  11. Web site: Courts Service website . 2 December 2020.
  12. News: Judge criticises pace of defamation case . 16 September 2020 . RTÉ News . 15 February 2017 . en . 17 September 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200917011555/https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0215/852844-declan-ganley-rte-high-court/ . live .
  13. News: Leaving Cert students expelled over social media video . 16 September 2020 . RTÉ News . 14 December 2018 . en . 16 September 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200916190329/https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2018/1214/1017207-students-expelled-video/ . live .
  14. News: Greyhound wins injunction over plant blockade . 16 September 2020 . RTÉ News . 17 June 2014 . en . 26 February 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210226104330/https://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0617/624392-greyhound-waste-collection/ . live .
  15. News: Court rules ESB must pay 60% of UCC costs . 16 September 2020 . RTÉ News . 4 December 2015 . en . 16 September 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200916235819/https://www.rte.ie/news/2015/1204/751291-cork-floods/ . live .
  16. News: Liquidator confirmed to Co Meath construction and plant hire business . 16 September 2020 . Irish Examiner . 20 April 2020 . en.
  17. News: Judge's one-page ruling criticised for being too brief by senior colleague . 16 September 2020 . Irish Independent . en.
  18. News: Phelan . Shane . High Court judge hits out at 'enormous' fees being charged by legal teams . 16 May 2019 . Irish Independent . 11 August 2016 . 16 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190516220428/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/high-court-judge-hits-out-at-enormous-fees-being-charged-by-legal-teams-34956370.html . live .
  19. Web site: High Court - Assignment of Judges – Michaelmas Term 2021 . The Courts Service of Ireland . 4 October 2021.
  20. Merriman v Friends of the Irish Environment. [2017] IEHC 695. High Court. 21 November 2017. http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ie/cases/IEHC/2017/H695.html. 27 August 2019.
  21. News: Carolan . Mary . Supreme Court quashes Government's plan to reduce greenhouse gases . 16 September 2020 . The Irish Times . 31 July 2020 . en . 1 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201001163825/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/supreme-court/supreme-court-quashes-government-s-plan-to-reduce-greenhouse-gases-1.4318578 . live .
  22. Friends of the Irish Environment v. Government of Ireland. Supreme Court of Ireland. 2020 IESC 49. https://www.courts.ie/acc/alfresco/681b8633-3f57-41b5-9362-8cbc8e7d9215/2020_IESC_49.pdf/pdf. 16 September 2020.
  23. News: Eckes . Christina . Separation of Powers in Climate Cases: Comparing cases in Germany and the Netherlands . 1 July 2021 . 10 May 2021 . en . subscription . 9 July 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210709231427/https://verfassungsblog.de/separation-of-powers-in-climate-cases/ . live .
  24. A v Minister for Justice and Equality. [2019] IEHC 547. 17 July 2019. http://www.courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/768d83be24938e1180256ef30048ca51/aa3efe14443b4f5a802584410037dceb?OpenDocument. 27 August 2019. .
  25. See Holland, K., "Ruling marks an end to forced separation of couples", Irish Times, 17 July 2019; retrieved 28 August 2019
  26. News: Thomas . Cónal . Minister promises 'urgent action' after shock High Court ruling on citizenship applicants . 21 July 2019 . TheJournal.ie . 18 July 2019 . en . 21 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190721104205/https://www.thejournal.ie/judgement-citizenship-ruling-high-court-4728389-Jul2019/ . live .
  27. News: Phelan . Shane . Shock at court ruling on meaning of citizenship application law . 21 July 2019 . Independent.ie . 17 July 2019 . en . 18 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190718161605/https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/shock-at-court-ruling-on-meaning-of-citizenship-application-law-38322506.html . live .
  28. Jones v Minister for Justice and Equality. [2019] IEHC 519. 11 July 2019. http://www.courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/768d83be24938e1180256ef30048ca51/0e91c61cc288576780258439003bc2b4?OpenDocument. 21 July 2019.
  29. Web site: O'Neill . Conor . "On the citizenship ruling" . twitter.com . 2019-08-16 . 2019-09-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190928102639/https://twitter.com/conoraon/status/1151871027510726657/photo/1 . live .
  30. Web site: Between / Roderick Jones and Minister for Justice and Equality . The Court of Appeal . Ireland . 14 November 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201124203914/https://www.courts.ie/acc/alfresco/31702c60-3d89-4ff8-a581-5ba6454fa1cf/2019_IECA_285_1.pdf/pdf#view=fitH . 2020-11-24 . 3 February 2022 .
  31. News: Thomas . Cónal . 'Unworkable' and 'unduly rigid' High Court finding on citizenship application overturned . 15 November 2019 . TheJournal.ie . 14 November 2019 . en . 14 November 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191114204410/https://www.thejournal.ie/unworkable-and-unduly-rigid-high-court-finding-on-citizenship-application-overturned-4892148-Nov2019/ . live .
  32. News: Appeal court overturns 'unbroken' residence ruling . 15 November 2019 . RTÉ News . 14 November 2019 . en . 14 November 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191114180726/https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2019/1114/1090909-citizenship/ . live .
  33. News: O'Donnell . Orla . Minister: Citizenship ruling being dealt with urgently . 21 July 2019 . RTÉ News . 18 July 2019 . en . 21 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190721104203/https://www.rte.ie/news/courts/2019/0718/1063836-citizenship-ruling/ . live .
  34. News: McDonald . Frank . Surprise Moore Street judgment leaves Government in a quandary . 16 May 2019 . The Irish Times . 22 March 2016 . 8 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201108170658/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/surprise-moore-street-judgment-leaves-government-in-a-quandary-1.2582009 . live .
  35. News: Carolan . Mary . Court of Appeal rules Moore St buildings not 1916 national monument . 16 May 2019 . The Irish Times . 14 February 2018 . 9 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201109025002/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/court-of-appeal-rules-moore-st-buildings-not-1916-national-monument-1.3391827 . live .
  36. News: Barrett . Max . The fate of Moore Street . 16 September 2020 . The Irish Times . 21 May 2020 . en . 30 June 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200630024741/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-fate-of-moore-street-1.4258448 . live .
  37. News: McCarthy . Justine . High Court judge Max Barrett 'broke protocol' with letter about Dublin development he ruled on . 16 September 2020 . 16 August 2020 . en . subscription . 14 September 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200914020532/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/high-court-judge-max-barrett-broke-protocol-with-letter-about-dublin-development-he-ruled-on-ktgst2nhf . live .
  38. News: Scally . Derek . Irish judge joins Warsaw march over 'threat to independence' of judiciary-Mr Justice John MacMenamin among EU judges calling for protection of Polish peers . 3 September 2021 . 11 January 2020 . en . subscription . 29 June 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210629165211/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/irish-judge-joins-warsaw-march-over-threat-to-independence-of-judiciary-1.4137344 . live .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Max Barrett (judge)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.