David Langwallner
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Public Interest Barrister, Academic. All views are entirely personal and do not reflect the views of any organisation I am affiliated with.
Articles by David Langwallner
Advocacy as high theatre
I have recently completed a podcast series on the relationship between law and literature.* Episode four, which deals with advocates and judges in literature, begins with an argument that Sir Edward Carson was the greatest Irish or British advocate of all. In fact, to some increasingly representative elements of Southern and Northern Ireland, writing about his greatness as an advocate is a form of high treason which I now willingly commit.
Our greatest intellectual is gone
For more than six decades, Jürgen Habermas defended the power of reasoned dialogue against authoritarianism, consumerism and political cynicism When the greatest mind on the planet dies, it would be ignorant not to write a proper obituary. Jürgen Habermas is dead at 96, and the obituaries in the established papers — not just in Ireland — did not properly understand why, or what, is lost.
A year after Roe was overthrown, lessons from Trump’s Supreme Court for Ireland’s
6 7 July-August 2023July-August 2023 77 The idea of historicism, unevolving text that should be interpreted according to the original intent of those who drafted the text — militating against the derivation of new rights, particularly privacy restrictions could be imposed on abortion unless they were unduly burdensome. his Tled to a flurry of State retrenchments and subsequent litigation. Notifications, parental consent, independent advice were all promoted as obstacles to the procedure.
Malpractice by those at the top of Mannok
Whistleblew in the face. By David Langwallner.
Whistleblew in the face. By David Langwallner.
The Man in Room Fourteen. By Kevin Higgins.
Humour Archives - Village Magazine
More than four decades ago, Chris the Kid Schroeder and I tried desperately to avoid wetting ourselves in a cinema whilst watching a 1950s promotional film about Dallas. The absurd shots of big buildings, huge hats, and sparkling Lincoln Continentals were accompanied by a repetitive ditty: They make ‘em bigger and better in Dallas! It […] Read more
Consequences of Media Regulation Bill
You can change its layout or disable it completely. You can customize the color scheme to meet your preferences. Finally, the above menu is also fully customizable, like any More Than Menu in the Chirps Theme
David Langwallner: The Run For Cover
From top: Leakey’s second hand bookshop. Inverness, Scotland; David Langwallner A bit like a latter-day Dr. Johnson, but not to the Outer Hebrides, I took a recent break in the highlands of Scotland. The trip for those interested in a travelogue covered some but not all of Johnson’s itinerary: Inverness, Fort William, Skye and, with some difficulty, a lesser-known island called Jura.
David Langwallner: From Desolation Row
From top: Boris Becker arrived for his sentencing hearing with his partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro; David Langwallner Today, a bit like Rumpole with the Timsons, I was in Court 10 at the Crown Court in Southwark, south east London with an old client, who is doing his very best to keep food on my table. With the barrister’s no return policy in full swing (no return work from other chambers can be accepted), he had my full, undivided attention.
David Langwallner: Keeping A Straight Face
From top: Alec Guinness; David Langwallner I have taken my daughter Lara to the circus several times. Not the circus of the Four Courts, but the visiting itinerant players in Clontarf. A nether land. Located between the interstices of Clontarf and Fairview. She was frightened by the Clowns though. No one should be. Clowns are good people largely. And her daddy likes them.
David Langwallner: Magic Time
From top: Aleister Crowley; David Langwallner ‘Witchcraft was hung in history But history and I Find all the witchcraft we need’ Emily Dickinson, “People think I can sprinkle some magic dust on their cases – but some cases are not winnable. I spend much of my time saying, “Stop, you’ll lose.” Then I hear the words, “This is a matter of principle.” Lord Pannick.
David Langwallner: Ex Cathedral
From top: Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral (left) dwarfing the city’s newer Catholic cathedral; David Langwallner At this stage I am privileged enough to have seen most of the great cathedrals of the world and, amid the case I recently finished in Manchester, saw the two great cathedrals of Liverpool, the Protestant cathedral with its neo-gothic or faux-gothic interior and the much more modern Catholic cathedral a stroll down the road, aptly called Hope Street – with its Brutalist, sacred...
David Langwallner: 42 Clifton Road
From top: Lord Birkenhead and his birthplace 42 Clifton Road, Liverpool; David Langwallner To David Gottlieb. I am towards the conclusion of a marathon case in Manchester but I’m not oblivious of the outside world or my complex Irishness. In recent weeks, thus has commenced the commemoration of the signing of the Treaty and, thus, the inception of the Irish Free State. The Treaty signed 100 years ago in December, but not fully in until July.
David Langwallner: Lessons From Albrecht
From top: Albrecht Dürer self-portrait and Patti Smith as she appears on the cover of ‘Horses’; David Langwallner Several years ago, I lectured law and international relations in The Anglo-American University in Prague. Prague is a transport hub and if you get a bus in three hours or so, you are in Germany or more precisely Nuremberg, a city I had always wanted to visit.
David Langwallner: Manchester, So Much To Answer For
From top The Hacienda apartments, Manchester former home of the iconic nightclub of the same name; David Langwallner I am presently doing a profoundly serious case, the sort of case that is an emblem of the social disintegration of our time, in Manchester Crown Court, though there are two crown courts. The old courts are in Minshull Street.
David Langwallner: Mann In The Mirror
From top: Dirk Bogarde in the 1971 film adaptation by Visconti of Thomas Mann’s novella ‘Death in Venice’; David Langwallner I have been asked by several organs and journals to review Colm Tóibín’s book on Thomas Mann, The Magician, and it is, in my view, beautifully written. But that is an aside. The reasons that I have been asked, so plentifully, to review are patently obvious in some respects and ought to dictate, in these perilous times, a level of circumspection.
David Langwallner: Good Dickens
From top: First edition of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens; David Langwallner ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen Let nothing you dismay Remember Christ our Saviour Was born on Christmas Day To save us all from Satan’s power When we were gone astray Oh, tidings of comfort and joy Comfort and joy Oh, tidings of comfort and joy’ Hymn featured in ‘A Christmas Carol’ I am a huge fan of Charles Dickens and, although many find his novels overly sentimental, as if that were a criticism, from the...
David Langwallner: The Dead At Christmas
From top: A still from John Huston’s 1987 film adaptation of James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’; David Langwallner To my mother, Mai Cashman Langwallner. A Broadsheet reader wanted a piece on Irish mothers but not just that. What about the disturbed Madonna/whore neo-liberal hierarchy that is Ireland? The missionary position to invoke, blasphemously, Hitchens. Also, dead. And, of course, my mother floats across my consciousness. Songs my mother told me. Have I let her down?
David Langwallner: Protest To Survive
From top: Anti covid mandate protest in Vienna, Austria on Saturday; David Langwallner “After all it’s not that awful. You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.” Orson Welles in ‘The Third Man’ (1949).
Facism not Fascism: the Mask. By David Langwallner.
Frank Kitson, Collusion and the McGurk’s Bar Cover-Up. By Ciarán MacAirt.
David Langwallner: Nuremberg Justice
From top: Spencer Tracy in 1961’s ‘Judgement At Nuremberg’; David Langwallner “By the end of this Winter pretty much everyone in Germany will have been vaccinated, recovered or died” Jan Spahn, German’s health Minister yesterday. I am influenced by comments by recent readers about the dangers inherent in the recent Austrian decision to introduce compulsory vaccines and vaccine desegregation, and pen this accordingly.
The Austrian Attack
The Austrian flag; David Langwallner This afternoon. Further to Austria’s decision to make COVID-19 vaccines ‘mandatory by law’ and implement a full national lockdown starting Monday… …Austro-Irish human rights lawyer David Langwallner writes: 1) This is a worrying extension of control and compliance and in breach of Article 8 (privacy rights). It is the negation of choice and a slippery slope and should not be followed in other countries.
David Langwallner: The Old Bailey And The New Normal
From top: ‘Protect the Children of the Poor and Punish the wrongdoer’- Inscription outside the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, London, England; David Langwallner My mother brought me up to believe in the idea that the worst thing you could do was lie and, absent small lies, lying in general should be condemned – particularly the lying of the powerful who are too adept at getting away with lying.
David Langwallner: The Austrian Mind
From top: Statue of Salzburg-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, located in the Burggarten in Vienna. In the background the Austrian flag flies above the Austrian National Library; David Langwallner To My Daughter Lara. “In those days before the Great War when the events narrated in this book took place, it had not yet become a matter of indifference whether a man lived or died.
David Langwallner: On The Question Of Vaccination
From top: the Citywest vaccination centre; David Langwallner Now, you remember children how I told you last Sunday about the good Lord going up into the mountain and talking to the people. And how he said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ And how he said that King Solomon in all his glory was not as beautiful as the lilies of the field. And I know you won’t forget, ‘Judge not lest you be judged,’ because I explained that to you.
David Langwallner: Easy Listening
From top: The Rolling Stones in 1968; David Langwallner These are troubled times, and many have accused my columns of being dark. What is the solution in our awful times to appease the savage beasties? Well, music helps. So, allow me a few personal recommendations. If you are committed to a stressful job or coping with the dehumanisation of unemployment and deprivation, how do you turn off. What should you listen to?
David Langwallner: The Case Against Gates
From top: Bill Gates with President Michael D Higgins in Aras an Uachtarain in 2013; David Langwallner There has been a recent proliferation of books, papers, articles and broadcasts about the political and social malaises we are facing – unprecedented in human history or at least since the 1930s.
David Langwallner: A Challenge Supreme
From top: The Irish Supreme Court sitting in 2020 with Chief Justice Frank Clarke (centre) with Supreme Court members , from left: Ms. Justice Isuelt O’Malley, Mr. Justice John MacMenamin, Mr. Justice Donal O’Donnell, The Chief Justice Mr Justice Frank Clarke, Mr. Justice Liam McKechnie, Mr. Justice Peter Charleton and Ms. Justice Mary Irvine (Mr. Seamus Woulfe has since joined); Mr. David Langwallner Journalist Danielle Idini, from Cassandra Voices, is doing a series of interviews,...
David Langwallner: Many Happy Returns
From top: Adrian Hardiman in 2009; David Langwallner I am 57 today. I share the same birthday with the erotic and political Austrian writer Hertha Muller, the Jamaican freedom fighter Marcus Garvey, the writer of ‘The Corrections,’ Jonathan Franzen, Ted Hughes, author of ‘Birthday Letters,’ and the greatest living actor, though a man of complexity, Mr Robert de Niro. Leos, the astrologist say of this day, are controlled but passionate and inclined to lose the rag.
David Langwallner: Bard As I Wanna Be
From top: A masked William Shakespeare; David Langwallner I am reliably informed that the first person to die following the Covid jab in the UK was one William Shakespeare of an unrelated illness. Sympathies to his family, but conscious of his lineage and pedigree, I am fond of quoting Shakespeare in my closing speeches. He says a lot about the human condition that appeals to juries or sometimes judges.
David Langwallner: Suffering For Our Art
From top: Van Gogh self portrait (1889); David Langwallner Several years ago, an estimable French lawyer and former student invited me to Arles Clara De La Barriere and I accepted. My abiding memories of the same are mad driving, utter unbridled conversation and constant chain smoking, a similar experience Clive James had with Francoise Sagan, the author of Bonjour Tristesse (1955).
David Langwallner: Playing With Toy Soldiers
From top: Ballymun tower blocks in the 1960s; David Langwallner I recently concluded a Crown Court Case with 16 defendants in an Inner London Crown Court which was effectively a drugs conspiracy trial of the young with some heedless older models. I am very much mindful of such social developments, having seen them in Dublin and the way they have corroded and destroyed the social structure in Ireland. This is known in South America as the Pixote phenomenon.
David Langwallner: A Plague, Witch Hunts And Warts And All
From top: Oliver Cromwell (left) and Samuel Pepys; David Langwallner I have just completed a successful case, from the defendant’s point of view, in the sleepy market town of Huntingdon, Cambridgshire, which, from distant election broadcasts, I had appreciated was John Major‘s seat. That was the extent of my initial knowledge. Perhaps there is a gap in my education, as it is the birthplace of two of the central British figures most relevant to our age: Oliver Cromwell and Samuel Pepys.
David Langwallner: The Unvaccinated Rebel
From top: Albert Camus by Henri Cartier-Bresson (1944); David Langwallner The world is now increasingly being divided between an ever-smaller, dominant, medieval plutocratic class. Between them and the excluded others. Let us call them The Unvaccinated. Only a metaphor, but an important one. I have written hitherto about how we are descending or reverting to the 1930s in terms of austerity, the rise of fascism and the decline of rational discourse.
David Langwallner: Easter In The East End
From top: Reggie Kray and Barbara Windsor in the Double R club, east London, 1964; David Langwallner I had not been to the Thames Magistrates Court or Bow Street Magistrates Court in almost 30 years until two years ago and here I am now again in Covid times on an Easter Saturday. Well one has to eat in perilous times. Magistrate work has become desirable since Crown Court work is at half-mast.
David Langwallner: Whistling In The Light
From top Marlon Brando as South African lawyer McKenzie modelled on Sir Sidney Kentridge in A Dry White Season (1989); David Langwallner The most famous lawyer on the planet is 98 years of age and has only recently retired. But would our internet generation know who Sir Sidney Kentridge is? Whistle-blowing is a zeitgeist issue. It should be said one can get seduced by glamour and whistle-blowing has increasing glamour. Right up to Mr. Assange of whom more later.
David Langwallner: After Midnight
From top: the statue on the cover of Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil originally located in Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia; David Langwallner It is Easter time, and one is reminded of the resurrection of good and evil. The Southern Gothic tradition of such diverse figures as Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy and, above all else, Flannery O’Connor is a potpourri of hysteria, a crucible of awfulness.
David Langwallner
Post navigation From top: Gene Wilder (centre) as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971). Charlie Bucket and his grandfather are on the left; David Langwallner Roald Dahl created ambiguous books for children with dark metaphorical messages. The most famous are about Mr. Willie Wonka. Mr. Wonka owns a chocolate factory and closed it because of espionage and betrayal.
David Langwallner: I’ve Got A Perfect Puzzle For You
From top: Gene Wilder (centre) as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971). Charlie Bucket and his grandfather are on the left; David Langwallner Roald Dahl created ambiguous books for children with dark metaphorical messages. The most famous are about Mr. Willie Wonka. Mr. Wonka owns a chocolate factory and closed it because of espionage and betrayal. Now, in seclusion, he creates the Wonka chocolate bars in a factory where a race of Oompah Loompas or dwarfs work for him.
David Langwallner: Why I Disagree
From top: Gardai arrest a man protesting covid restrictions on O’Connell Street, Dublin 1 on St Patrick’s Day; David Langwallner “My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.” Christopher Hitchens.
David Langwallner: A New Dark Age
From top: Oskar Schindler’s desk at his former munitions factory in Kraków, Poland, now a museum; David Langwallner In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Stanley Kramer contributed a variety of films assessing, in a critical way, the major issues of that time. One of these was Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).
David Langwallner: Weiss Before The Event
From top: German playwright and novelist Peter Weiss; David Langwallner It is St Patrick’s day tomorrow. The Irish people are going to protest. Thus this may seem obtuse but it is not. The Aesthetics of Resistance by Peter Weiss is the greatest German book of the 20th century. It has now only ⅔ appeared in English because of its complexity, difficulty and frankly perceived obscurantism.
David Langwallner: Give Them Enough Rope
Orson Welles playing Jonathan Wilk, based on famed attorney Clarence Darrow, in Compulsion (1958); David Langwallner Orson Welles arrived in Ireland as a 15-year-old farm boy, but precocious and overweight beyond his years.
David Langwallner: Human Rights In A Coronavirus Panopticon
From top: Anti-lockdown protest in Cork city last Saturday; David Langwallner Now of course we live in perilous times worldwide for the justice system and one can have far too much faith in legal processes to protect us as the rule of law and the cause of human rights diminishes and the gatekeepers have to enforce ever more draconian legislation.
David Langwallner: J’Accuse…!
From top: Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar; David Langwallner To: Taoiseach and Tanaiste of the Republic. An Open Letter by Citizen Langwallner Letter to Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin (With gratitude for inspiration to Émile Zola) Mr Taoiseach and Mr Tánaiste, our joint vectors of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism, may I address you remotely?
David Langwallner: The Dying Of The Light
From top: The Pass at Thermopylae, Greece, where for three days 300 Spartans are said to have held back a vast Persian army; David Langwallner Several years ago I assisted a gentleman lawyer, Mr Leonidas Pegiadis, in The Mark Marku case in Crete and then Athens, Greece. Huge scepticism on his behalf as to what The Innocence Project was. Rightly so. Mr. Pegiadis, an oracle, said: ‘Neoliberalism, David is a form of decadence’. Like Zorba The Greek. Like Leonidas The Lion. I listen but judge.
David Langwallner: Measure For Measure
From top: Lockdown critic, British Lord Jonathan Sumption; David Langwallner The central Shakespeare play on law and legalism is ‘Measure for Measure’. The Duke of Vienna has unwisely left, as custodian of the state, Angelo, a religious maniac. The engine of the play is that the Duke does not leave Vienna but disguises himself as a monk in order to ascertain what is happening in his Kingdom.
David Langwallner: Throwing The Innocents To The Lions
From top: A still from Give Up Yer Auld Sins (2001); David Langwallner Several years ago, I gave a talk on The Common Causes of Miscarriages of Justice in The University of Milan, subsequently published by Kluwer. Professor Luca Luparia, an estimable man, but I suspect a very religious man, always perhaps a failing, took me to a lovely little church full of Christian bones and skeletons. An ossuary. Perhaps a lesson or an intimation or the sort of lesson I have always resisted.
David Langwallner: Shelter From The Storm
From top: Garda Commissioner Drew Harris (right) on RTÉ One’s The Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy last Friday: David Langwallner ‘I was burned out from exhaustion Buried in the hail Poisoned in the bushes And blown out on the trail Hunted like a crocodile Ravaged in the corn “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give ya Shelter from the storm”‘ Bob Dylan: Shelter From the Storm Frederico Garcia Lorca was, of course, murdered and abominated by fascists, but more of that later.
David Langwallner: A Port In A Storm
From top: Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) and Marcel Marx (Andre Wilms) in Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre (2011); David Langwallner The great Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki is still alive and, given the amount of booze and cigarettes he ostensibly consumes, that is a minor miracle. We are lucky to have him with us still. In my view, apart from the Japanese director Koreeda, whose film I Wish (2011) about children is as great as Ozu, the highest compliment, Kaurismaki is possibly the last humanist director.
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