Dr Michael P. Mortell - Law Degrees - 21st July 1997

Speech by Dr Michael P. Mortell,
President, The National University of Ireland Cork,
at the Conferring of Degrees in the Faculty of Law, Monday, 21 July, 1997.

Law touches all of our lives. Not just the lives of you who studied long and hard in the course of your BCL, LLB or LLM Degrees - obtained through day or evening studies. Many of us do not have a daily involvement with legal matters as a career, but through the media, or through work, have to contend with matters of law or justice, or indeed the conflict between law and justice.

The kind of laws we have tell us much about the society we live in. The law is a living thing. It and society's values are bound together in a mutual embrace. The law reflects society's values, and measures the change in the these values. Conversely, the law induces change in people's behaviour, which in turn changes society's values.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said that law was the history of experience. In more recent times the question has been asked : whose experience?

The experience in Ireland has changed rapidly in the last 20 years or so, and so have the values of our society. We have seen the introduction of birth control, divorce; we have seen an increase in single-parent families, a growing culture of drugs and violent crime, we have seen the arrival of the feminist movement. I list these simply as a matter of fact, and not in any sense of making value judgements.

The changes in society, of which these factors are the tangible symptoms, are reflected in family law, social welfare law, employment law. The balance is our society between freedom and discipline has shifted in favour of freedom, and the balance between individual and community rights has moved in favour of the individual. The criminal justice system is a current example of the tension between the rights of the individual and society. We expect a system of prosecution and custody which will combine respect for the civil liberties of the individual, and simultaneously protect the common good by bringing criminal to justice swiftly.

An educated lawyer today must then have a propensity for reflection. It is not enough to know the law and its applications, without also having a concern for justice. It is not enough to be a mouthpiece of orthodoxy, but rather be a constructive critic of the system.

You who graduate today move into a world much different to that of previous generations of lawyers. We are now an integral part of the European Union - the Celtic Tiger with the highest growth rate in Europe! This is the context in which your career will be worked out. There will have to be some form of harmonisation and co-operation between the different European legal systems. Change to-date has been slow - in part because of perceived difficulties in bringing together such different legal traditions. You have a contribution to make to this debate - you are the young Europeans! You have to be rooted in your own tradition in order to bring the best aspects of it into Europe. We have to give to Europe as well as take from it. We have to be partners in an enterprise, bringing with us our values, culture, traditions, our uniqueness to better inform and work out the rich texture of diversity that will be the common Europe of tomorrow.

You are well prepared for this. You have studied along side Erasmus students at UCC; you have studied at partner universities in Europe; you have studied a European language; you have some appreciation of the culture, tradition and value of that society; you may pursue postgraduate study at a university in Europe.

The future of Ireland and of Europe is in your hands. As W.B. Yeats said

Tread softly,


 


For your tread on my dreams.

University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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