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Ireland's special rapporteur for child protection has called for a State inquiry into illegal adoptions. In a report published today, Professor Conor O'Mahony said the State was aware of the possible existence of a practice of illegal birth registrations since the early 1950s and had received an act

The UK Supreme Court has refused to give whistleblower Julian Assange permission to appeal against his extradition to the US. He had attempted to appeal on the basis he is at risk of suicide but the justices said the application did not raise “an arguable point of law”. 

The criminal legal aid sector in England and Wales is to receive up to an extra £135 million a year following a consultation, the UK government has announced. The move follows an announcement this week that 94 per cent of Criminal Bar Association members had voted in favour of industrial actio

A motorist who led police on a 35-mile chase was found to be carrying a toy driving license from Legoland. After a long pursuit, a 21-year-old man was arrested by officers from Kent and London on suspicion of multiple driving and drug-related offences, KentOnline reports.

Cyber risks threaten the future of digitalisation even before the war in Ukraine is taken into account, according to a new report from global law firm Eversheds Sutherland. The report highlights key findings from the firm's survey of 700 senior executives globally on the uptake of digital technologi

A humanitarian appeal launched by Northern Ireland solicitor Joanna Tobolska-Walczuk and her sister has raised £13,000 for Ukrainian refugees in just two weeks.

Scholarship awards for PhD students will be excluded from the means test for the blind pension under new regulations. The regulations signed by social protection minister Heather Humphreys and public expenditure and reform minister Michael McGrath follow regulations introduced last March to exclude

British judges have upheld Bermuda's ban on same-sex marriage as constitutional in a challenge brought to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), which remains the island territory's highest court of appeal. The JCPC, based in London, is the highest court of appeal for British Overseas T

Geraldine Hanna, the chief executive of Victim Support NI, has been appointed as the inaugural victims of crime commissioner designate for Northern Ireland. The post was established on a non-statutory basis following a public consultation last year amid concerns that legislating for a statutory comm

Proposals to strengthen Northern Ireland's criminal justice response to modern slavery and human trafficking have gone out to consultation. The public consultation will consider the introduction of slavery and trafficking risk orders, the commencement and nature of the duty to notify provisions, and

The Criminal Bar Association has voted to take industrial action in protest at the level of fees paid to them. About 1,800 criminal barristers voted to work to rule from April 11. This is only the second time the CBA has taken such action.

The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether an agreement between Google and Meta (formerly Facebook) for online display advertising services may have breached EU competition rules. The investigation relates to the so-called "Jedi Blue" agreement struck in September 2018

The Law Society of Ireland has launched a new sanctions resource hub to help solicitors ensure compliance with EU sanctions on Russia and Belarus. The online hub is aimed at sole practitioners and small to medium law firms in particular, helping them to respond to sanctions which are rapidly increas

Proposed cuts to Northern Ireland's justice budget have the "potential to cause generational harm", the Law Society and the Bar have warned. In a joint submission to the Department of Finance and the Department of Justice, the representative bodies said many solicitor firms "would simply not survive

A former prison has found new life as a legal cannabis farm. What used to be Claremont Custody Centre in California is now a bustling business, with cannabis growing in the garden while staff make edibles in the kitchen and assemble prerolled joints in the mess hall.