Extra-Judicial Comment By Judges

The issue of what judges may say (or write) when they are not on the bench is an important one, but one that is rarely considered in Ireland. This article looks at recent occasions where extrajudicial speech has been the subject of public comment in Ireland. It then examines case law from other jurisdictions, focusing on examples from common law countries and looking in some detail at the American experience, where formal rules have been drawn up and applied to a large number of cases. It attempts to distil these into a theory of how extra-judicial comment should be limited and to provide practical guidance for the Irish context