The Government has appointed Mr Justice George Birmingham as Trinity’s new Judicial Visitor, College has announced.
In an email to staff and students this afternoon, Secretary to the College John Coman said that Mr Justice Birmingham had taken up the government-appointed position of Judicial Visitor as of yesterday.
Birmingham has been appointed following the resignation of Dr Justice Maureen Harding-Clark who has served as the Judicial Visitor since 2009.
Justice Clark has assumed a new role as a judge on the Supreme Court of the Extraordinary Chambers of the Court of Cambodia, a United Nations court that tries the leadership of the Khmer Rouge regime that ruled in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
The main responsibility of the Judicial Visitor is to “hear internal appeals against decisions of the Board and other bodies in College, interpret the College Statutes and approve amendments to the College Statutes”, Coman wrote.
The Judicial Visitor is one of two Visitors to hold these responsibilities. The other Visitor is Trinity’s Chancellor, an office currently held by former president of Ireland Dr Mary McAleese.
The College statutes outline that the Visitors “shall be independent in the performance of their functions”.
According to the statutes, the Chancellor is the “primary Visitor”, meaning that in the event of a disagreement between the two Visitors, the Chancellor’s decision overrides that of the Judicial Visitor.
According to College’s website, the Visitors “have been involved in many of the great controversies in the history of the College”.
The role of the Visitors was in the spotlight in recent weeks when it was revealed that College was considering the introduction of a quota system for the Trinity’s Foundation Scholarship (Schols) exams, which would see a cap placed on the number of new scholars per faculty.
The proposal was met with outrage from representatives of the Scholars, who said that the changes would damage the reputation of Schols.
The representatives said that the introduction of a quota system would be in breach of the statutes and that they would consider bringing the proposal to the Visitors, who have the final say on appeals of decisions made by College Board.
