The right to perform a Civic Duty
As one experiences more and more of the world, it becomes apparent that situations are often never very clear cut: in the words of a famous Monkees song there are ‘only shades of grey’.
Well so it seems in The Republic of Ireland where Joan Clarke, a deaf mother is bringing a landmark legal case against The Galway County Registrar, The Courts Service of Ireland and the Attorney General for breach of her human rights under the Human Rights Act 2003; this alleged breach relates to her being discriminated against for being deaf.
In April 2006 Ms Clarke was summoned for Jury Service at the Galway Circuit Court and was happy and willing to perform her Civic Duty, which she saw as the right and obligation of every Citizen to perform. She was, however, subsequently excused from Jury Service on the grounds of her disability.
Now many people may be asking why the Court could not have provided a deaf interpreter for Ms Clarke…or indeed, why Ms Clarke could not have thanked her lucky stars to have avoided what many of us would have loved to have dodged out of.
Well the answer lies in the Irish Constitution and proves the ‘grey’ nature of this case. The Constitution lays down rules to protect the integrity of trial by Jury, one of which relates to the total confidentiality and inviolable privacy due to Jury members when in closed discussion regarding a case. Because, in effect, this means that only Jury members can be present during their ‘in camera’ deliberations, this rules out the presence of a deaf interpreter even though the interpreter would be a vital and indispensable aid to performing the act of being on a Jury.
The case is currently being processed with no initial date for a hearing: the challenge is the first of its kind in Ireland; however, similar cases have been rejected in the UK but have been accepted in the US.