Bailey gives public lecture on the role of jurisprudence

Ian Bailey last night gave a talk on aspects of the law but would not be drawn on his own experiences ahead of a High Court date next Friday when he will continue his efforts to prove his claim that gardaí applied “malice” against him in their investigation of the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier.

Earlier this year, Mr Bailey, 56, received a master of laws degree at UCC and last night’s talk in the West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen was on the role of jurisprudence.

Mr Bailey gave the public lecture at the invitation of the West Cork Philosophical Society, with the hour-long talk on jurisprudence, “the philosophical basis of the law”. Describing himself as an “academic lawyer”, Mr Bailey discussed natural law theory versus positive law theory.

Mr Bailey, who lives near Schull, is a self-confessed suspect in the death of French filmmaker Ms du Plantier at her holiday home on Dec 23, 1996. Last year he won a Supreme Court action preventing the French authorities from extraditing him as part of their probe.

Next Friday he is due in the High Court before Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns in his action against gardaí, seeking documentation he claims will help prove that some gardaí in the du Plantier probe had offered witnesses inducements to obtain evidence against him.

Speaking ahead of last night’s lecture Mr Bailey said the Government’s plan for a property tax was “against the directed principles of social policy” as outlined in article 45 of the Irish Constitution.

“I am just throwing that out to debate, really,” he said. “The thing with so much of the law is that it is up for argument.”

At last night’s event he said article 45 provided safeguards for citizens but that “the postmodern reality [is] going, going, gone”. He also cited the closure of Garda stations as evidence of the downside of austerity policies.

He also hit out at the troika and “economic fascism”. He said: “What we are witnessing in Europe in general and in Ireland in particular is the dawning of an age of regression, retrenchment and welfare austerity which will lead to significant reductions in wealth redistribution while the earnings and revenues of future generations have effectively been mortgaged to pay the gambling debts of others.”

Referencing the “reckless” lending practices of the banks, he said: “Increasingly, the ordinary man, woman and child, supposedly guaranteed so many rights by Bunreacht na hÉireann, are increasingly penalised and victimised by their own Government at the command, behest and diktat of that absentee landlord — our new European technocratic masters, the troika of the IMF, ECB and EU.”

Earlier he commented on the row between elements of the judiciary and Justice Minister Alan Shatter. “The Irish judiciary are particularly fierce about their independence,” he said. “The Irish Constitution sets it up so they are not to be interfered with.”