Ruth Cannon BL

I qualified as a barrister in 1999 having previously obtained an LLB from Trinity College Dublin followed by a Master’s degree (the BCL) from Oxford University.  I was elected a Scholar of Trinity College in 1993 and was subsequently the recipient of a British Council/Chevening Scholarship in respect of my study at Oxford.

Since then I have been practising as a barrister in the area of civil law, specialising in property and probate law.   Further details of my practice, and the many reported cases in which I have appeared as Junior Counsel, are provided below.

I have also lectured in property law and evidence law in many institutions, including the Honourable Society of King’s Inns, Trinity College Dublin and the Technological University of Dublin (formerly DIT) and published many articles and a texts on property law now in its third edition, in addition to co-authoring texts on evidence law and an annotated version of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009.

I am an editor of the Conveyancing and Property Law Journal and have contributed chapters on property law and contract law to the Annual Review of Irish Law, and a chapter on Ireland in several editions of an international publication on evidence law  I  have delivered many papers on property law at academic and professional conferences as well as providing presentations on all areas of property law to semi-State bodies and solicitors’ firms.

My practice in the area of property and probate law includes both litigation and advisory work.

Litigation

I have extensive experience of acting as Junior Counsel in the Circuit and Superior Courts in landlord and tenant, probate and property law disputes including but not confined to ejectment proceedings, boundary disputes, adverse possession cases, easements cases and claims under the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980.   I have also appeared in many Special Summons applications under the Trustee Act 1893 and in many Ground Rents arbitrations before County Registrars.

Reported cases in which I have appeared include the following:

Minogue v Clare County Council [2021] IECA 98 (Court of Appeal)

Begley v Damesfield Limited [2020] IECA 171 (Court of Appeal); [2018] IEHC 221 (High Court);

KW Investment Funds ICAV v Lorgan Leisure Limited [2020] IEHC 132 (High Court Commercial List)

Dublin Port Company v Automation Transport Limited [2019] IEHC 499 (High Court Commercial List)

Fastwell v OCL Capital [2018] IEHC 39 (High Court)

Meier v Lynch [2017] IEHC 769 (High Court)

Sacco v Boylan [2017] IEHC 665 (High Court)

The Leopardstown Club v Templeville Developments Ltd and Philip Smyth  (No. 2)[2017] IESC 50 (Supreme Court); [2015] IECA 164 (Court of Appeal); [2013] IEHC 526 (High Court)

Larianov Foundation v Leo Prendergast and Sons (Engineering) [2017] IEHC 192 (High Court)

Cunningham v Bank of Scotland plc [2017] IECA 254 (Court of Appeal)

Perfect Pies Limited (in Receivership) v Chupn Ltd [2015] IEHC 692 (High Court)

Murphy v Hooton 22 May 2014 (High Court)

The Leopardstown Club Limited v Templeville Developments Ltd (No. 1) [2010] IEHC 152 (High Court)

Re O’Brien’s Sandwich Bars Limited [2009] IEHC 465 (High Court)

Foley v Mangan [2009] IEHC 404 (High Court)

Advisory Work

I have extensive experience providing opinions on property and probate issues including but not confined to the following: title issues; conveyancing disputes; tenant statutory entitlements; covenants in leases; freehold covenants; express, prescriptive and implied easements; adverse possession; Land Registry and Registry of Deeds issues; mortgages; judgment mortgages; validity and interpretation of wills and interpretation of statute law in this area including the Succession Act 1965, the Landlord and Tenant Acts and the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009.

I also have considerable experience in the drafting of deeds and have also drafted and advised on many applications to the Property Registration Authority.

Books (single-author)

(1) R Cannon, Land Law (2nd ed, Round Hall, 2011) [137 pages] First published in 2001; a second edition substantially rewritten to take account of the changes introduced by the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 was published in 2011. Favourably reviewed in (2012) 17(2) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 33. Cited in Wylie, Irish Land Law (5th ed, Bloomsbury Professional, 2013) and in 12(1) 2013 Hibernian Law Journal 43.

Books (co-author)

(1) R Cannon, A Clancy and P Kenna, Property Legislation Annotated 2009-2011 (Round Hall, 2012) (2)

(2) R Cannon and N Neligan, Evidence (Round Hall, 2002) [400 pages] Favourably reviewed in (2003) 8(1) Bar Review 29 and (2004) 98(8) Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland 34. Referenced by the High Court and Supreme Court of Ireland in the following written decisions of those courts:- Butler v Regan, July 1 2004; Murray v Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse, January 27 9 Progression from Assistant Lecturer to Lecturer Application Form – HRP046 2004, Ochre Ridge v Cork Bonded Warehouses [2004] IEHC 160; Director of Public Prosecutions v McNeill [2011] 2 ILRM 461. Cited in the following national and international publications: (2003-4)65 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 179]; (2004), 9(5) Bar Review 192, (2004) 7(1) Trinity College Law Review 2004 162-183, (2005) 26 Michigan Journal of International Law 505, 547, (2014) 17(1) Trinity College Law Review 182-200, (2015) 33(1) Irish Law Times 11-16, Butler, Criminal Litigation (Oxford University Press, 2012) and Imwinkelried & Frieman The New Wigmore: A Treatise on Evidence (Aspen Law & Business, 2002).

Chapters in Books

1. Ireland in S Mason (ed) Electronic Evidence: Disclosure, Discoverability and Admissibility (3rd edn, Butterworths 2012) (with C Dawson). Between 2007 and 2012 I contributed the section on ‘Ireland’ to this leading international text, until the individual country sections were discontinued.

2. Ireland in S Mason (ed) Electronic Evidence: Disclosure, Discoverability and Admissibility (2nd edn, Butterworths 2012) (with C Dawson).

3. Ireland in Mason (ed) Electronic Evidence: Disclosure, Discoverability and Admissibility (1st edn, Butterworths 2012) (with C Dawson).

4. Contract Law in R Byrne and W Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2005 (Round Hall, 2006)

5. Land Law in R Byrne and W Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2005 (Round Hall, 2006)

6. Contract Law in Byrne & Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2004 (Round Hall, 2005)

7. Contract Law in Byrne & Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2004 (Round Hall, 2005)

8. Contract Law in Byrne & Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2003 (Round Hall, 2004)

9. Land Law in Byrne & Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2003 (Round Hall, 2005)

10.Contract Law in Byrne & Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2002 (Round Hall, 2005)

11.Land Law in Byrne & Binchy (eds), Annual Review of Irish Law 2002 (Round Hall, 2005)

Articles

1. Cannon, Life Estates, Leases for Lives and Rights of Residence after the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 (2015) 20(4) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 91. [This article was subsequently cited in Wylie, The Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009: Annotations and Commentary (2nd edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2017)]

2. Cannon, Leasehold and Freehold Covenants Affecting Building (2009) 14(3) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 66 [This article was subsequently cited in Wylie, Irish Land Law (5th ed, Bloomsbury Professional, 2013)]

3. Cannon, Forfeiture for Breach of Covenant by a Tenant: the Need for Reform (2007) 12(1) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 5 [This article was subsequently cited in Wylie, Landlord and Tenant Law (3rd edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2014) and in 2007 12(4) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 94-9]

4. Cannon, Section 47 of the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 and ss.191 and 192 of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004: New Developments in Relation to Contracting Out under the Landlord and Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980 (2008) 13(3) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 68 [This article was subsequently cited in Wylie, Irish Land Law (5th edn, Bloomsbury Professional, 2013), Wylie, Landlord and Tenant Law (3rd edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2014) and Wylie, Irish Landlord and Tenant Acts: Annotations, Commentary and Precedents (Bloomsbury Professional 2016)]

5. Cannon, Termination of Tenancies under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004: the New System (2005) 10(4) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 85 [This article was subsequently referenced by Laffoy J in Canty v Private Residential Tenancies Board, 8 August 2007 (High Court)]

6. Cannon, The Bigoted Landlord: a Re-Examination of Schlegel v Corcoran and Gross, (2005) 12 (1) Dublin University Law Journal 248 [This article was subsequently cited in (2007) 29(1) Dublin University Law Journal 260 and is referenced in the current Dictionary of National Biography entry for Judge George Gavan Duffy]

7. Cannon, Forfeiture for Breach of Covenant Covenants in Conversion Fee Farm Grants created out of Perpetually Renewable Leases: a Problem for Irish Conveyancers (2005) 10(1) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 16 [This article was subsequently cited in Wylie and Woods, Conveyancing Law (2nd edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2005) and in Wylie, Irish Land Law (5th edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2013)]

8. Cannon, From Deasy’s Act 1860 to the Occupier’s Liability Act 1995: the Survival of the Common Law in the Interstices of Legislation (2003) 8(3) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 3

9. Cannon, Order 51 of the Circuit Court Rules 2001: Changes in Practice and Procedure in Landlord and Tenant Matters (2003) 81(1) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 4 [This article was subsequently cited in Brennan, Ground Rents: a Practitioner’s Guide ( Round Hall, 2005) and Wylie, Landlord and Tenant Law (3rd edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2014)]

10.Cannon, The Lease-Licence Distinction (2000) Bar Review 332 [This article was subsequently cited in Power, Intangible Property Rights (Bloomsbury Professional 2003) and 2006 11(2) Conveyancing and Property Law Journal 41]

11.Cannon, Matters of Irish Constitutional Debate: Originalism, Democracy and Natural Law (1995) 5 Irish Student Law Review 22 [This article was subsequently cited in Hogan & Whyte, JM Kelly,: the Irish Constitution (4th edn, Bloomsbury Professional 2003) and in Roznai, Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments; the Limits of Absolute Power (Oxford University Press 2018)]

Presentations

1.Presentation on Landlord and Tenant Law to ESB Legal Department on Landlord and Tenant Law, 2016 ●

2. Presentation on Landlord and Tenant Law to Legal Department of Mason Hayes and Curran, 2016 ●

3. Presentation on Ground Rents to members of the Dublin Solicitors Bar Association, 2013 ●

4. Presentation on the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 to the Limerick Solicitors Bar Association, 2011

5. Presentation on the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 to the Cavan Solicitors Bar Association, 2011

6. Presentation on the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 to the Louth Solicitors Bar Association, 2010

7. Presentation on the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 at the Annual Conference of the Bar of Ireland, 2010.

Conference Papers

1. Landlord and Tenant Law Updates, Property Updates Forum, Griffith College, October 2014

2. Complex Ground Rent Issues, Central Law Training Complex Conveyancing Conference 2007, Dublin 2007

3. Recent Developments in Landlord and Tenant Law, Central Law Training Conveyancing Conference 2006, Dublin 2006

4. The Residential Tenancies Bill 2004, Central Law Training Conveyancing Conference 2005, Dublin 2005

5. Liability of Solicitors for Negligence in Conveyancing Matters, New Developments in Conveyancing Law Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, 2005

6. Applications under Section 117 of the Succession Act 1965, New Developments in Probate Law Conference, Trinity College, Dublin, 2004

7. Survival against the Odds: the Future of the Common Law of Real Property, Irish Association of Law Teachers Conference 2003, Galway, 2003 8

8. Equal before the Law: The Admission of Evidence of Bad Character of the Accused in a Criminal Trial, Irish Association of Law Teachers Conference 2002, Dublin, 2002

9. Learning from the Neighbours: the Socio-Legal Implications of the Lease-Licence Distinction in Britain and Ireland, Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference 2002, Aberystwyth, April 2002

10.The Individual and Public Accountability: the Relevance of the Constructive Trust in the context of Planning Bribes, Irish Association of Law Teachers Conference 2001, Dublin, 2001

11.The Right to Silence and the Presumption of Innocence, Irish Association of Law Teachers Conference 2000, Kilkenny, 2000