The Smurfit Irish Law Center

The Saint Louis University Law Library has an extensive 20th century Irish law collection.

The Smurfit Irish Law Center supports a research collection in Irish law intended to serve the needs of both the scholar and the practitioner. For the scholar, the law of Ireland provides a fertile field for the study of comparative law. The Irish legal system is like ours in many ways--the Irish Constitution was largely patterned after the United States Constitution--and yet, as a result of its long connection with the law of England as well as the circumstances of its subsequent development, there are substantial differences as well.

For the practitioner, access to the sources of Irish law is valuable, as a number of American corporations do a large amount of business in Ireland, a member of the European Union. At least one major Irish corporation is prominent in the St. Louis area. American lawyers are able to consult Irish law in such diverse areas as tax, land, labor, health, commercial and development law.

The Law Library lends Irish legal materials to Libraries in every part of the United States. These are accessible through OCLC, the largest online catalog in the world.

A bibliography of the collection dated 1996 has been provided for your information on this web site. The Smurfit Irish Law Center Bibliography.

If you are interested in further information on Irish Law, check out this site: Irish Law