Legal System

The legal system in Ireland is founded upon the principles of Common Law and has been modified by subsequent legislation and by the Constitution of 1937. In addition, statutes passed by the British parliament before 1921 have the force of law unless the Irish Parliament has repealed them. As stated in the constitution, justice must be administered in public in courts established by law. The President appointed judges based on the advice of the Government.

Generally speaking common law, as opposed to civil or socialist law, is a type of legal system where legislation is continually evolving. Courts refine and create laws on a case-by-case basis. When resolving a legal dispute, in the ideal world, a common law court looks to precedents set by other courts. What this means is that when a court is resolving a dispute, it must look to see if a similar dispute was resolved in the past. If one has, then the present day court is obligated to following the same reasoning used in the prior case; this principle is called stare decisis. On the other hand, if the dispute is totally unique, the court may resolve the matter itself using general guidelines. This new decision then becomes the precedent to which all future cases are bound. Over the years, the precedents created by past decisions coalesce into a complicated set of rules that apply to a wide array of case; this collection of rules is known as “common law”. Of course, common law systems are much more complex in practice, nevertheless the principle of stare decisis as described above, is the foundation of all common law systems.

Currency

Official name: Euro

Currency code: EUR

Abbreviation: €

Exchange rate: free floating/flexible

Official users: Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland,

Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, and Vatican City.

Unofficial users: Andorra, Kosovo, and Montenegro

Pegged by: BAM, BGN, CVE, KMF, XPF, XOF, XAF, EEK, LTL, LVL, MTL

Subdivided into: cents