Regulatory Law in Ireland is a welcome addition to an area in which there is (in this jurisdiction) a dearth of textbooks. To date, the main textbook has been the Law Society’s own Regulatory Law Professional Practice Guide, publishing in 2004. However, while a very welcome publication at the time, the area of regulatory law moves so quickly that the Connery and Hodnett book could not come soon enough. Mr Hodnett is a legal advisor to the Commission for Aviation Regulation and Ms Connery is a legal advisor to the Commission for Communications Regulation. The authors’ special expertise and familiarity with the practice area of regulatory law shines through this publication.

The book has a very interesting introductory section, explaining the background to regulation, its constitutional position and the reasons for regulation. As someone who works on a daily basis with regulatory law in all its guises, it was very helpful to take a step back and have regulation put in context. Particularly as a litigator, it was beneficial, as it is not uncommon for judges, coming from perhaps very diverse backgrounds in law, to seek to be given, or to adopt, this kind of perspective when dealing with complex questions of statutory interpretation in the area of regulation.

However, let us leave litigation for the moment as hopefully most practitioners will want to focus on the earlier chapters of this book. After giving the background information as described above, the authors have selected six regulated areas to consider in greater details – namely, aviation, financial services, broadcasting, communications, competition and energy.

Given the current climate, I turned immediately to the chapter on financial services regulation. The introduction to this section reflects on recent times in the financial services sector, pointing out that, for example, merger control rules have been all but abandoned in the crisis, citing the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America and the Lloyds TSB bid for HBOS as examples.

However, in the (unexpressed) hope that we have returned to more certain financial times, the authors review the relevant legislative framework and the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland. The legislation in this area is very complex, based as it is on various EU directives. Given the likelihood that practitioners will be inundated with queries from clients who are upset about advice given to them by banks, insurance brokers and other financial advisors, this book will be of great assistance coming to grips with a difficult area in a very short space of time. Sections of the chapter are also dedicated to the role of the Financial Services Ombudsman, who will be the first port of call for many such a disgruntled client.

Turning then to other sectors, the authors deal in great details, as can be expected, with their own areas of aviation and communication regulation – again, two areas (particularly the latter) in which there is a great deal of legislation and very little guidance to help the uninitiated through the morass. The authors have resolved this by giving clear and focused descriptions of the roles of the regulators and their respective enforcement powers. This approach is also reflected in the chapters on broadcasting, competition and energy regulation. There is also a chapter on regulatory law in Ireland that many breaches are criminal offences. The common investigative powers of authorised officers (which can be appointed by more regulatory bodies) are described, together with a discussion of the issues that arise in relation to such criminal offences.

Finally, we return to litigation. The authors devote two excellent chapters to the issues of appeals and judicial review. The authors note that the emergence of regulators has given rise to the emergence of appeal panels, pointing out that appeal panels are not courts but are more akin to tribunals where, in many cases, regulated entities and, in some cases, consumers can attempt to settle their differences with their respective regulators. I would agree with the authors’ statement that the use of appeal panels in Ireland is in its infancy and only time will tell if they will prevail against the traditional Irish bias towards court hearings. To date, that does not look to be the case. However, the chapter on appeals is extremely useful, as, while most practitioners will be familiar with the concept and practice of judicial review, the same cannot be said of appeal panels, even for practitioners working in the area of regulatory law. The chapter details the appeals profess in the previous chapters, which will be an invaluable resource for pressurised practitioners trying to establish quickly whether to advise his or her client to appeal against a decision of a regulator or to issue judicial review proceedings post-haste.

Finally, the chapter on judicial review gives an excellent summary of the issues arising specifically in the area of regulatory judicial review textbooks would gloss over (such as the fact that an application for leave to bring judicial review proceedings regarding determination of Commission for Aviation Regulation may not be made ex parte but rather on notice and within two months of the date on which notice of the determination was first published).

In summary, then, this is a most welcome textbook, and one can well imagine the section on financial services regulation in particular will be well thumbed in the coming months.

Law Society Gazette Ireland 2010

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