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Peter Mitchel Andrew Charleton (born 11 April 1956) is an Irish judge who has served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland since June 2014. He previously served as a Judge of the High Court from 2006 to 2014.

Early life

He was educated at St Mary's College, Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and King's Inns. He was the Auditor of the College Historical Society between 1977 and 1978. His immediate predecessor was Mary Harney. He was in the final of the Irish Times Debate in 1977 and won the Benchers' Trophy for legal debate with Alex Schuster in 1979. As auditor of the CHS, his inaugural address was on the subject of "Republicanism Reviewed" and featured contributions from Conor Cruise O'Brien, John A. Murphy, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Mairéad Corrigan, Noël Browne and John Brooke, 2nd Viscount Brookeborough.

Legal career

He was called to the Bar in 1979, and became a senior counsel in 1995. He was the first senior counsel to appear in an Irish court without a wig, following the enactment of the Courts and Court Officers Act 1995. He was appointed to the Advisory Group on Criminal Law and Procedure in 1996 by Minister for Justice Nora Owen.

His legal practice included appearing for the Director of Public Prosecutions in criminal trials. He was prosecuting counsel in cases against Catherine Nevin for murder, and Paul Ward and John Gilligan in the Special Criminal Court for the murder of Veronica Guerin. Charleton also represented clients as a criminal defence barrister and in family law, judicial review and commercial law cases. He represented Christy Burke in a defamation action in 1996 and Eircom in a case related to the publication of a phone sex line in their telephone directory. He defended Ritchie Neville and Jason "J" Brown of the boyband 5ive following charges arising out of an altercation in Temple Bar, Dublin in 2001.

He worked as senior counsel for the Morris Tribunal into allegations of corruption in the Donegal division of the Garda Síochána. He was joined by Paul McDermott SC and Anthony Barr. He left the Morris Tribunal two years before it finished to take up an appointment to the High Court.

Charleton has also represented the State in cases before the European Court of Justice.

He is the author of a number books on criminal law and has also published on family and constitutional law, copyright, extradition and judicial review. He lectured in the King's Inns in the law of tort between 1982 and 1984, Trinity College Dublin in criminal law between 1986 and 1988, Fordham University, The University of Washington, and China University of Political Science and Law. He is also an adjunct professor of criminal law and criminology at University of Galway and regularly delivers lectures there.

He was Chairman of the National Archives of Ireland Advisory Council from 2011 to 2016, an unpaid position.

Judicial career

High Court

He was appointed as a Judge of the High Court in December 2006, and assigned to the Commercial Court from 2010. In 2014 he criticised a firm of stockbrokers for taking risks with the personal fortune of a person with special needs. As a judge of the Central Criminal Court, in a case called The People (DPP) v WD he introduced sentencing bands for rape cases and followed this up with supervision of the Judicial Researchers Office to produce sentencing guidelines for a range of serious indictable crime.

He has also acted as an ad hoc judge of the European Court of Human Rights.

Supreme Court

He was nominated to the Supreme Court in June 2014 and appointed by President Michael D. Higgins in July 2014.

Charleton has written judgments for the Supreme Court on key aspects of criminal law. In 2016, he outlined the nature of consent in law in the context of sexual offences. He developed the substance of Irish common law defences of duress and provocation in the Gleeson and McNamara cases respectively, in both instances deploying tests using mixed standards of objective and subjective elements.

Disclosures Tribunal

In 2017, he was appointed sole member of the Disclosures Tribunal investigation into allegations of Garda Síochána malpractice. He published two substantive reports as chair of the Tribunal.

The portion of the inquiry presided over by Charleton ran from February 2017 until October 2018. In his findings from the inquiry, he found that a Garda sergeant, Maurice McCabe, had been subject to a smear campaign by the Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and a Garda press officer, but not from subsequent Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan and other Gardaí. He was also critical of the Child and Family Agency in handling claims of rape.

In his concluding remarks on his findings, he criticised the Gardaí and the Child and Family Agency for not having organisational mentalities of learning from their errors. He was particularly critical of the credibility of evidence given by several senior members of the police force. Drew Harris, O'Sullivan's successor as commissioner, said on its publication that the report was "difficult reading for the organisation" and the Gardaí would move to have "an open and inclusive culture".

Subsequently, he criticised the manner in which tribunals of inquiry are conducted in Ireland. He suggested that instead of being run in a format akin to criminal trials, the main aspect of the inquiry should be directed from the tribunal itself. He later co-authored a journal article about his proposals for change.

Personal life

He is married to Fiona Daly. He has three children, Clara, Anna-Rose and Maitiú. He was a founder-member of the National Symphony Chorus RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and a member of the board of the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

Publications

• Charleton, Peter (October 1980). "Improperly Obtained Evidence and the Constitution". Law Society Gazette.
• Charleton, Peter (1982). "Family Law - Mareva Injuntions". DULJ. 4 (95).
• Charleton, Peter. "The Powers of the Police: A Critical Overview". Law Society of Ireland Gazette. 1982.
• Charleton, Peter (May 1982). "An Outline of Extradition Law". Law Society of Ireland Gazette: 161.
• Charleton, Peter (1983). "The Scope of the Remedy of the Barring Order". Irish Law Times.
• Charleton, Peter (1982). "Family Law - Mareva Injuntions". DULJ. 4 (95).
• Charleton, Peter (1984). "Criminal law - Protecting the mentally subnormal against sexual exploitation". DULJ. 6 (165).
• Charleton, Peter (1985). "The Scope of the Doctrine of Common Design". Irish Law Times.
• Charleton, Peter (1986). Controlled Drugs and the Criminal Law. Dublin: An Cló Liúir. ISBN 0951103709.
• Charleton, Peter (1989). "Extradition from Ireland to the United Kingdom". Journal of Criminal Law. 53 (2): 235. doi:10.1177/002201838905300207. S2CID 149386648.
• Charleton, Peter (1990). "The Victim in Irish Constitutional Law: A New Departure". Irish Law Times. 8: 140–143.
• Charleton, Peter (1991). "Causation in the Law of Homicide". Irish Criminal Law Journal. 1 (1): 68–85.
• Charleton, Peter (1992). Offences Against the Person. Blackrock, Co. Dublin: Round Hall Press. ISBN 9780947686857.
• Charleton, Peter (December 1992). "Judicial Discretion in Abortion: The Irish Perspective". International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family. 6 (3): 349–380. doi:10.1093/lawfam/6.3.349.
• Charleton, Peter (1992). Criminal law: Cases & Materials. Dublin: Butterworth Ireland. ISBN 9781854751690.
• Charleton, Peter (1995). "Drugs and Crime - Making the Connection: A Discussion Paper". Irish Criminal Law Journal. 5 (2): 220–240.
• Charleton, Peter; Bolger, Marguerite (January–February 1995). "The Law at Life's End". Law Society of Ireland Gazette. 29 (29, Part 2): 29–77.
• Charleton, Peter; Bolger, Marguerite (1998). "The Competition (Amendment) Act, 1996: Extending the Criminal Law". The Bar Review. 3 (5).
• Charleton, Peter; McDermott, Paul Anthony (1998). "Drugs: The Judicial Response". The Bar Review. 3 (7).
• Charleton, Peter; McDermott, Paul Anthony; Bolger, Marguerite (1999). Criminal law. Dublin: Butterworths. ISBN 9781854758453.
• Charleton, Peter; McDermott, Paul Anthony (2000). "Constitutional Implications of Plea Bargaining". The Bar Review. 5 (9).
• Charleton, Peter; McDermott, Paul Anthony (2000). "From Diplock Courts to Jury Courts". The Bar Review. 8: 99–135.
• Charleton, Peter; McDermott, Paul Anthony (2000). "The Illegal Immigrants Trafficking Act 2000". The Bar Review. 6 (3): 170.
• Charleton, Peter (2000). "Fou Ts'ong: L'Incroyable Histoire d'Un Talent Venu d'Extrême-Orient". Piano: Le Magazine. 14: 17–23.
• Charleton, Peter; McDermott, Paul Anthony (2001). "Constitutional Aspects of Non-Jury Courts". The Bar Review. 6 (3): 141–148.
• Charleton, Peter (2006). Lies in a Mirror: An Essay on Evil and Deceit. Blackhall Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9781842181010.
• Charleton, Peter (2009). "Employment injunctions: an over-loose discretion". Irish Judicial Studies Journal. 2: 1–25. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
• Charleton, Peter (2009). "Some Thought for New Entrants to the Law Library". The Bar Review. 14 (5): 90–92.
• Charleton, Peter; Byrne, Stephen (2010). "Sexual Violence: Witnesses and Suspects - a Debating Document". Irish Journal of Legal Studies. 1 (1): 1–83.
• Charleton, Peter; Kelly, Sinéad (2013). "Marriage and the Family: A Changing Institution?". The Bar Review. 16 (5–6): 103.
• Charleton, Peter; Scott, Lisa (2013). "Throw Away the Key: Public and Judicial Approaches to Sentencing - Towards Reconciliation" (PDF). Irish Probation Journal. 10: 7–36. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
• Charleton, Peter; Kelly, Sinéad (2013). "The Oracle Speaks Case C128/11". The Bar Review. 18 (3): 33–44.
• Charleton, Peter; Reilly, Sinéad (2015). "Passing Off: An Uncertain Remedy" (PDF). Fordham Intellectual Property Conference. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Charleton, Peter; Molloy, Saoirse (2015). "Case Management: Fairness for the Litigants, Justice for the Parties". The Bar Review. 20 (3): 59–64.
• Charleton, Peter; Cox, Angelina (February 2016). "Accepting the Judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU as Authoritative: The Supreme Court of Ireland, the European Stability Mechanism and the Importance of Legal Certainty". Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law. 23 (1): 204–215. doi:10.1177/1023263X1602300113. S2CID 157440882.
• Charleton, Peter; Pratt-O'Brien, Ross; Libreri, Emma (2017). "Blasphemy: religion challenges freedom of speech". Irish Judicial Studies Journal. 1: 15–30. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
• Charleton, Peter; Kelly, Sinéad (2017). "Passing Off: A Flexible Safety Net for the Traders". 20 Years of the Boards of Appeal at EUIPO: 136.
• Charleton, Peter; Herlihy, Ciara (2018). "The impact of the digital age on law". Irish Judicial Studies Journal. 2 (1): 50–66. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
• Charleton, Peter; Herlihy, Ciara (2018). "L'Impacte de l'Age Numérique sur le Droit". Irish Judicial Studies Journal. 2 (1): 55–72. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
• Charleton, Peter; Herlihy, Ciara (2019). "Truth To Be Told: Understanding Truth In The Age Of Post-Truth Politics". Irish Judicial Studies Journal. 01 2019: 1–18. Archived from the original on 15 June 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
• Charleton, Peter; Herlihy, Ciara; Carey, Paul (2019). "Clocha Ceangailte agus Madraí Scaoilte or How Tribunals of Inquiry Ran Away from Us". Dublin University Law Journal. 41 (2).
• Charleton, Peter; Charleton, Clara; Laurent, Quentin (2019). "Patents granted to computer systems?". Dublin University Law Journal. 42 (1): 209–220. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
• Charleton, Peter; Daly, Conor (2020). "Truth, Patriotism and the Heroic Narrative: The Case of Operation Anthropoid" (PDF). Irish Judicial Studies Journal. 4 (1): 121–141. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
• Charleton, Peter (2020). "Carl Jung, Father Victor White and the Book of Job" (PDF). Irish Judicial Studies Journal: 134–147. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
• Charleton, Peter; McDermott, Paul Anthony; Herlihy, Ciara; Byrne, Stephen (2020). Charleton & McDermott's Criminal law and evidence (Second ed.). Bloomsbury Professional. ISBN 9781845922313.
• Charleton, Peter; Cross, Orlaith (2021). "Towards a Presumption of Victimhood: Possibilities for Rebalancing the Criminal Process". Irish Judicial Studies Journal: 1–25. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
• Charleton, Peter; Cross, Orlaith (2022). "Special Protection Certificates: Extending patent protection in the EU by administrative action: or is it something more?". Fordham University 29th Annual IP Conference. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
• Charleton, Peter (2022). "Cuban Missiles: A Warning on the Uncertainty of War". Irish Judicial Studies Journal: 91–113. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
• Charleton, Peter; Rakhmanin, Ivan (2023). "The Safe Use of Expert Evidence". Irish Judicial Studies Journal, Volume 1 2023: 52-69. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
• Charleton, Peter; Lochrin, Liam (2023). "The Mysteries of the Common Law". Irish Judicial Studies Journal, Volume 2 2023: 45-62. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
• Charleton, Peter; Lochrin, Liam (2023). "Les Mystères de la Common Law et Les Émotions des Juges". Irish Judicial Studies Journal, Volume 2 2023: 63-82. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
• Charleton, Peter (2023). "The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich". IARMHÍ 2023-2024 Edition, Volume 1 No 3: 82-91.
• Charleton, Peter; O'Connor, Victoria (2024). "Try Something Else: Contempt and Confusion". Irish Judicial Studies Journal, Volume 1 2024: 44. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
• Charleton, Peter; Rakhmanin, Ivan (2024). "Expert evidence: dangers and the enhancement of reasoning". BJPsych Advances: 1–8. doi:10.1192/bja.2024.18. Retrieved 15 May 2024.

References

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• 1956 births
• Living people
• Irish Senior Counsel
• Judges of the Supreme Court of Ireland
• Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
• High Court judges (Ireland)
• Alumni of King's Inns
• 20th-century Irish lawyers
• 21st-century Irish judges
• Lawyers from County Dublin
• People from Churchtown, Dublin
• People educated at St Mary's College, Dublin