S.I. No. 536/2001 - Offences Against The State Acts, 1939 To 1998 (Special Criminal Court Rules), 2001

WHEREAS it is enacted by section 38 (1) of the Offences against the State Act, 1939 (No. 13 of 1939) (hereinafter referred to as the Act) that as soon as may be after the coming into force of Part V of the Act, there shall be established for the purposes of that Part of the Act a Court which shall be styled and known, and is in the Act referred to, as a Special Criminal Court;

AND WHEREAS by a Proclamation dated the 26th day of May, 1972, the Government ordered that Part V of the Act should come into force;

AND WHEREAS a Special Criminal Court was established on the 30th day of May, 1972;

AND WHEREAS it is enacted by section 41(1) of the Act that every Special Criminal Court shall have power in its absolute discretion, to appoint the times and places of its sittings, and shall have control of its own procedure in all respects and shall for that purpose make, with the concurrence of the Minister for Justice, rules regulating its practice and procedure and may in particular provide by such rules for the issuing of summonses, the procedure for bringing (in custody or on bail) persons before it for trial, the admission or the exclusion of the public to or from its sittings, the enforcing of the attendance of witnesses, and the production of documents.

AND WHEREAS the Special Criminal Court made Rules, with the concurrence of the Minister for Justice on the 3rd day of October, 1975 [S.I. 234 of 1975].

AND WHEREAS the Special Criminal Court has decided to amend the said Rules made on the 3rd day of October, 1975.

NOW THEREFORE the Special Criminal Court established on the 30th day of May, 1972, in pursuance of the power vested in it hereby makes, with the concurrence of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the Rules annexed hereto:-

Dated the 19th day of November, 2001

Signed: } Members of the Special Criminal Court.

I concur in the making of these Rules.

Dated the 30th day of November, 2001

JOHN O'DONOGHUE

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform

OFFENCES AGAINST THE STATE ACTS, 1939 to 1998 (SPECIAL CRIMINAL COURT RULES), 2001

(1)      These Rules shall come into operation on the 3rd day of December, 2001 and may be cited as the Special Criminal Court Rules, 2001.

(2)      They shall apply, when appropriate, to all proceedings, taken on or after that day and in all cases then pending before the Court.

(3)      In any place where the words “the Chief State Solicitor” occur in the Rules made in 1975 it shall hereafter be taken to refer to the “Chief Prosecution Solicitor” in lieu thereof.

(4)      Any proceedings conducted or matters required to be done by or in relation to or on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions by the Chief State Solicitor may hereafter be done by the Chief Prosecution Solicitor or in relation to the Chief Prosecution Solicitor.

(5)      These Rules shall be construed together with the Offences Against the State Acts, 1939 to 1972, Special Criminal Court Rules, 1975.