Enriching the JCFJ

Added Tuesday 2 December 2008 :: Category: General, Spirituality :: 1 Comment »

Patrick J Hume SJ has joined the team of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice. Patrick, who is a qualified solicitor, will lead a new and exciting project at the Centre. He will undertake research and reflection focused on exclusion from law and legal services. Why devote skilled energies to this? In the following paragraphs provided by the JCFJ, the rationale behind this project is elaborated.

EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW

This Centre wishes to explore and elaborate the principle that laws must be implemented fairly and equally. While people are often protected by the law, their financial circumstances often mean that the very laws which are meant to assist them are ignored and cannot be enforced by the courts.

What strategy is required by the state to ensure that the legislation which is on our statute books is enforced in a more inclusive way? The focus here will be on matters of civil law, such as employment, housing, probate, consumer law, social welfare law and family law, as distinct from criminal matters, which has a much more developed legal aid system. How are the protections of the law to be made available to all those they are meant to protect?

This project hopes to examine some cases and explore how international treaties and national law require a more proactive legal aid in matters of civil law which affect the ordinary man and women on the street or the person on the Crumlin omnibus.