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44 N. Ir. Legal Q. 233 (1993)
The Floodgates of Judicial Review: Once More unto the Breach

handle is hein.journals/nilq44 and id is 243 raw text is: Autumn, 19931 THE FLOODGATES OF JUDICIAL REVIEW THE FLOODGATES OF JUDICIAL REVIEW: ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH' Lawyers in this jurisdiction are justifiably proud of a legal tradition and body of precedent which has often diverged from that of England and Wales.2 It is therefore of particular interest when developments take place in the law of Northern Ireland which are not reflected in England and Wales, and vice versa. Such is apparently the case with the judicial review of committal proceedings. It is a well-established principle that magistrates' court proceedings are generally reviewable by the Queen's Bench Divisional Court, and this also holds true for committal proceedings. For example, in R v Colchester Magistrates, ex parte Beck,3 Robert Goff J said that he had- -... no doubt that proceedings before examining magistrates, like other judicial proceedings before an inferior tribunal, are liable to be reviewed and, if necessary, quashed if the rules of natural justice are not complied with .... 4 In addition to review for breaches of the rules of natural justice, there are also cases which establish on their particular facts that a procedural irregularity may be of such magnitude as to render the committal, the indictment and the resulting trial a complete nullity. As previously stated, these are all I. Shakespeare, Henrv V, Act 3, Scene 1, Line I. 2. For example, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal in R v Governor of HMP Maze, ex parte McKiernan J 19851 NI 385 declined to follow relevant English authority: the House of Lords at a later date in Leech v Deputv Governor of HMP Parkhurst 119881 AC 533 preferred the Northern Ireland authority of McKiernan over the contradictory English authorities. 3. 1197912 All ER 1035. 4. Ibid. p 1042. See also exparte Adans [197811 All ER 373 and exparte Joseph (1993) 143 NLJ 655. By way of illustration of the review of substantive magistrates' court proceedings, see R v Bradford Justices. ex parte Wilkinson 119901 2 All ER 833 (certiorari granted against magistrates for their failure to accede to the applicant's request at his trial for the issue of witness warrants to compel the attendance of witnesses who were vital to his defence). 5. For example. see R v Gee (1936) 25 Cr App R 198, where irregularities in the taking of depositions rendered the proceedings so defective that there had been no lawful committal for trial: in R v Phillips 119391 1 KB 63, the committal was quashed because of the irregular manner in which the depositions of witnesses had been taken: in R v Lamb 119691 I All ER 45. a committal was quashed when it was made upon a charge which was unknown to the law at the time: in R v Coleshill/Justices, exparte Davies 119711 I WLR 1684. a committal was held invalid on account of a failure to comply with a (now repealed) statutory obligation under section 6 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1969. in that the justices had sent a minor forward for trial on the basis that there was sufficient evidence against the child, when there had been no consideration of the evidence at all. Also, where the consent of a law officer is required but is not obtained, then the committal, and the subsequent proceedings, are nullities: in this regard, see R v Autumn, 19931 THE FLOODGATES OF JUDICIAL REVIEW

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