Irish Judges Think Twice About Dubai Court Jobs And Make A Quick Exit

Two prominent Irish judges have resigned just days after being appointed to a court in Dubai, following controversy in their home country over their new positions.

On July 27, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum – who is the ruler of Dubai as well as prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates as a whole – oversaw the swearing in of four new judges to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts in a ceremony conducted online.

The four judges included Frank Clark and Peter Kelly of Ireland, as well as New Zealand’s William Young and the UK’s Michael Black.

The DIFC Courts adjudicate on disputes in what is arguably the most important commercial hub in the Middle East region. The financial free zone operates under a different legal code to the rest of the country and its courts are staffed by judges from common law jurisdictions such as Australia and England and Wales. Clark and Kelly were the first Irish judges to be appointed.

A statement issued by the UAE’s state-owned news agency WAM said the four new judges had “expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to be part of DIFC Courts”.

However, only two of them – Young and Black – are currently listed among the judges working at the courts, after Clark and Kelly both pulled out a few days after being sworn in.

The first to go was Clark, who resigned on July 30. That followed controversy in Ireland, where concerns had been raised about his new position while still being president of the Law Reform Commission in Ireland.

In a statement Clark, who had been Ireland’s chief justice – the country’s most senior judge – until October last year , said: “I am concerned that the current controversy could impact on the important work of the Law Reform Commission to which I am committed.”

Former High Court of Ireland president Peter Kelly then followed suit on August 2, telling The Irish Times that he had decided to resign because “as a private citizen, I do not want this controversy to disrupt my future time in retirement.”

Ivana Bacik, leader of the opposition Labour Party in Ireland, described the second resignation as an “appropriate and sensible decision”.

Legal commentators in Ireland have also welcomed the resignations.

Former barrister Bill Shipsey wrote in The Irish Times that, by accepting the appointments, the two men had risked undermining the reputation of the Irish judiciary.

Donncha O’Connell, a law professor at National University of Ireland Galway, wrote in a social media post that “Retired Irish judges should simply not be lending credibility to one part of the judicial system of a highly oppressive regime to create the impression (for business!) that there’s something approximating to the rule of law in that regime.”

A spokesman for the DIFC Courts did not respond to a request for comment on the affair.

Hong Kong precedent

Dubai is not the only jurisdiction to find itself in the spotlight while trying to run an international court. In March, two British judges resigned from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, amid a crackdown on life in the city by the Chinese authorities.

One of the two – UK Supreme Court president Robert Reed – said at the time that “I have concluded, in agreement with the government, that the judges of the Supreme Court cannot continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression.”