Law Adviser to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

The Office of Law Adviser to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was created in 1831 to ease the heavy workload of the Attorney General for Ireland and the Solicitor General for Ireland.[1]

No specific duties were assigned to the Law Adviser when the office was created: he appears at first to have been a general assistant to the Law Officers. Later he was given the tasks of drafting Bills, and advising lay magistrates on legal difficulties.[2] At first he was usually a Serjeant, but in time the position was opened to rising barristers who hoped in due course to be appointed to the Bench. The Attorney General seems to have had the final word in his appointment: certainly this was so in 1841 when Francis Blackburne insisted on the appointment of Abraham Brewster, despite strong opposition from Daniel O'Connell.[3]

The Law Adviser's duty of advising magistrates was criticised as an interference by the Crown with the independence of the judiciary: perhaps for this reason the office was left vacant after 1883. It was briefly revived in 1919, but finally abolished by the Irish Free State in 1924.[4]

Sketch of Charles Robert Barry, Law Adviser 1865-1868

List of Law Advisers 1831-1883,1919-1920

incomplete

Office vacant 1883-1919

Office lapsed 1920 and was abolished in 1924

References

  1. ↑ Casey, James The Irish Law Officers Round Hall Sweet and Maxwell 1996 p.47
  2. ↑ Casey p.48
  3. ↑ Delaney, V.T.H Christopher Palles Allen Figgis and Co Dublin 1960 p.60
  4. ↑ Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924 s.6
  5. ↑ Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol.ii p.359