Editing Habeas corpus (section)

===Ireland===
In the [[Republic of Ireland]], the writ of ''habeas corpus'' is available at common law and under the Habeas Corpus Acts of 1782 and 1816.

A remedy equivalent to ''habeas corpus'' is also guaranteed by Article&nbsp;40 of the [[Constitution of Ireland|1937 constitution]]. The article guarantees that "no citizen shall be deprived of his personal liberty save in accordance with law" and outlines a specific procedure for the [[High Court (Ireland)|High Court]] to enquire into the lawfulness of any person's detention. It does not mention the Latin term ''habeas corpus'', but includes the English phrase "produce the body".

Article&nbsp;40.4.2° provides that a prisoner, or anyone acting on his behalf, may make a complaint to the High Court (or to any High Court judge) of unlawful detention. The court must then investigate the matter "forthwith" and may order that the defendant bring the prisoner before the court and give reasons for his detention. The court must immediately release the detainee unless it is satisfied that he is being held lawfully. The remedy is available not only to prisoners of the state, but also to persons unlawfully detained by any private party. However, the constitution provides that the procedure is not binding on the [[Irish Defence Forces|Defence Forces]] during a state of war or armed rebellion.

The full text of Article&nbsp;40.4.2° is as follows:

{{blockquote|Upon complaint being made by or on behalf of any person to the High Court or any judge thereof alleging that such person is being unlawfully detained, the High Court and any and every judge thereof to whom such complaint is made shall forthwith enquire into the said complaint and may order the person in whose custody such person is detained to ''produce the body'' of such person before the High Court on a named day and to certify in writing the grounds of his detention, and the High Court shall, upon the body of such person being produced before that Court and after giving the person in whose custody he is detained an opportunity of justifying the detention, order the release of such person from such detention unless satisfied that he is being detained in accordance with the law. [italics added]}}

The writ of ''habeas corpus'' continued as part of the Irish law when the state seceded from the [[United Kingdom]] in 1922. A remedy equivalent to ''habeas corpus'' was also guaranteed by Article&nbsp;6 of the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State]], enacted in 1922. That article used similar wording to Article&nbsp;40.4 of the current constitution, which replaced it 1937.

The relationship between the Article&nbsp;40 and the Habeas Corpus Acts of 1782 and 1816 is ambiguous, and Forde and Leonard write that "The extent if any to which Article&nbsp;40.4 has replaced these Acts has yet to be determined". In ''The State (Ahern) v. Cotter'' (1982) Walsh J. opined that the ancient writ referred to in the Habeas Corpus Acts remains in existence in Irish law as a separate remedy from that provided for in Article&nbsp;40.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Michael |last1=Forde |first2=David |last2=Leonard |title=Constitutional Law of Ireland |year=2013 |pages=371–372}}</ref>

In 1941, the Article&nbsp;40 procedure was restricted by the [[Second Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland|Second Amendment]]. Prior to the amendment, a prisoner had the constitutional right to apply to any [[High Court of the Republic of Ireland|High Court]] judge for an enquiry into her detention, and to as many High Court judges as she wished. If the prisoner successfully challenged her detention before the High Court she was entitled to immediate, unconditional release.

The Second Amendment provided that a prisoner has only the right to apply to a single judge, and, once a writ has been issued, the President of the High Court has authority to choose the judge or panel of three judges who will decide the case. If the High Court finds that the prisoner's detention is unlawful due to the unconstitutionality of a law the judge must refer the matter to the [[Irish Supreme Court|Supreme Court]], and until the Supreme Court's decision is rendered the prisoner may be released only on bail.

The power of the state to detain persons prior to trial was extended by the [[Sixteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland|Sixteenth Amendment]], in 1996. In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled in the ''O'Callaghan'' case that the constitution required that an individual charged with a crime could be refused bail only if she was likely to flee or to interfere with witnesses or evidence. Since the Sixteenth Amendment, it has been possible for a court to take into account whether a person has committed serious crimes while on bail in the past.