The Supreme Court’s second week of term looks fairly busy; the Court will be in session every day, with one judgment and four cases set for hearing.

First of all, the Court will deliver judgment in Byrne v. Judge O’Leary on Monday morning. Back in January, before the  blog went public, I wrote this preview of the hearing:

The case arises from the Report into one of Ireland’s worst political and financial scandals, the Ansbacher offshore tax-evasion scheme.  In their Report, the Inspectors found that property developer John J. Byrne was an Ansbacher client, despite Byrne’s protestations that he did not control the money attributed to him.  Gilligan J. dismissed Byrne’s challenge to the Inspectors’ findings in the High Court; Byrne now renews his challenge before the Supreme Court. The High Court decision was rendered in 2006, so the case is a particularly egregious example of the Court’s infamous backlog.

On Monday and Tuesday, a five-member panel of the Court will hear O’Ceallaigh v. An Bord Altranais, a dispute between a midwife and the Fitness to Practise Committee hearing a complaint against her. In one of the High Court decisions on appeal  (available here) Judge Hedigan dealt with one of the midwife’s challenges to the disciplinary proceedings. The midwife claims that the Chair of the Committee should recuse herself because the Chair has a prior professional relationship with one of the witnesses.  Judge Hedigan disagreed. It appears that there is at least one other issue on appeal.

Wednesday sees MJELR v. Nowakowski before three members of the Court (Murray, O’Donnell, and McKechnie JJ.).  It’s a European Arrest Warrant Act case; the government of Poland seeks Nowakowski’s surrender so he can serve prison sentences for theft, drugs, and forgery offences.  In the High Court, Peart J. rejected most of Nowakowski’s objections and ordered extradition.

On Thursday, five judges of the Court will hear MJELR v. Devine. It’s a 2007 appeal, and I can’t figure out anything about it. From the name, it sounds like another European Arrest Warrant Act case, but that’s far from clear.

Finally, there’s a case called Sookarah v. Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform. I’m not sure, but it might be an appeal from this High Court decision, in which Judge Birmingham rejected the applicant’s challenge to the decision to deport him to Nigeria.