Balancing Due Process Values with Welfare Objectives in Juvenile Justice Procedure: Some Strengths and Weaknesses in the Irish Approach

This article is based on a paper delivered at the Irish Youth Justice Service Conference, ‘Best Practice for Youth Justice, Best Practice for All’, in March 2008. It examines how the tensions between welfare values and due process protections are being moderated in the context of a significant injection of welfare based reforms in the Irish juvenile justice system.The two examples used are the Garda Diversion Programme and the family conference facility in the Children Court as provided for by the Children Act 2001, as amended by Part 12 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006.The broad conclusion is that the benefits to be gained from these welfare reforms are being purchased at the cost of a dilution of judicial norms and processes.