George Bernard Francis Clarke[1] (born 10 October 1951[2][3]) is an Irish barrister and judge who has served as President of the Law Reform Commission since July 2022.
Two years after commencing practice he appeared as junior counsel for the applicant in State (Healy) v Donoghue[14] before the Supreme Court, which established a constitutional right to legal aid in criminal cases.
[1] Clarke represented Michael McGimpsey and his brother Christopher in a challenge against the constitutionality of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which was ultimately unsuccessful in the Supreme Court in 1988.
[15] He appeared for the plaintiff with Michael McDowell and Gerard Hogan in Cox v Ireland in 1990, where the Supreme Court first introduced proportionality into Irish constitutional law and discovered the right to earn a livelihood.
[21] He was appointed by the Supreme Court to appear to argue on behalf of the rights of the mother in In re Article 26 and the Regulation of Information (Services outside the State for Termination of Pregnancies) Bill 1995.
[22] In 1994, President Mary Robinson requested him to provide her with legal advice on the presidential prerogative to refuse to dissolve Dáil Éireann.
[26][27] He was a legal advisor to an inquiry into Deposit interest retention tax conducted by the Public Accounts Committee, along with future judicial colleagues Paul Gilligan and Mary Irvine.
[35] As a High Court judge he gave a ruling, on the Leas Cross nursing home case against RTÉ, that the public interest justified the broadcasting of material that otherwise would have been protected by the right to privacy.
[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] In 2007, he presided over a dispute involving the lease of Bewley's of Grafton Street and unsuccessful claims by Catherine Murphy and Finian McGrath over the composition of electoral constituency boundaries.
[45][46] Beginning in 2009 he oversaw the examinership process of Liam Carroll's Zoe Developments Group and separately an action involving the Irish branch of HSBC related to Bernie Madoff.
[47][48] He sat in a three-judge division of the High Court with Nicholas Kearns and Peter Kelly in 2010 in challenge by Paddy McKillen over the transfer of loans to the National Asset Management Agency.
[53][13] Ruadhán Mac Cormaic of The Irish Times said on his appointment as Chief Justice that Clarke has a "reputation for fair-mindedness and authority, and for judgments that were incisive and clear".
[9] He also noted that he tended not to share an "absolute pro-defendant" attitude to criminal law matters with some Supreme Court colleagues, while also having the perception of more liberal positions than other judges on surrogacy and social issues.
He delivered the judgments of the court in Kerins v. McGuinness[54] and O'Brien v Clerk of Dáil Éireann[55] which clarified the law of parliamentary privilege in Ireland.
[59] He was part of the majority in DPP v. JC in 2015 where the court departed from its precedent regarding the exclusionary rule in Ireland, with Clarke devising a new test to assess the constitutionality of evidence obtained by Gardaí.
Clarke co-authored a judgment in University College Cork v. ESB which presented a new authoritative statement regarding liability in negligence in Ireland.
[66] Clarke identified his priorities upon appointment to be to increase access to justice and the legal profession, to improve support and training for judges, and to expand the use of technology in the courts.
[70][71] Clarke serves on a judicial advisory committee for appointments of judges and advocates general to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
[72] In his role as Chief Justice, he was involved in the second inauguration ceremony of President Michael D. Higgins on 11 November 2018 at Dublin Castle.
[75] In August 2021, Séamus Woulfe attended a dinner organised by the Oireachtas Golf Society amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one month after being appointed to the Supreme Court.
[80] Clarke was required by law to retire on 10 October 2021, his 70th birthday,[81][82][83] and in March 2021 the Cabinet began the process of identifying his successor.