Special Criminal Court

The Special Criminal Court is a juryless criminal court in Ireland that tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases. It is based in the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin. Article 38 of the Constitution of Ireland allows the Dail to establish special courts with wide powers when the ordinary courts are inadequate to secure the effective administration of justice, and the Offences against the State Act 1939 created the court on that basis. The present incarnation dates from 1972, when the Government proclaimed the court's powers after the Troubles began, because juries and judges in regional cases had acquitted or lightly sentenced Provisional IRA volunteers and juries could be tampered with. Three judges sit without a jury, usually one each from the High Court, the Circuit Court and the District Court, appointed by the government from the ordinary courts, and verdicts are by majority. Appeals go to the Court of Criminal Appeal. Since the Provisional IRA ceasefire of the 1990s its work has widened to organised crime, including the trial of the gang that murdered the journalist Veronica Guerin.