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Slovenia has become the 13th country in Europe to pass legislation defining rape as sex without consent. The new amendment to the Slovenian criminal code, debated for nearly three years, removes the requirement for evidence of use of force or the threat of use of force and violence to classify an ac

Lady Hale has advocated the use of caravan courts to restore local justice and spare participants long journeys. The former Supreme Court justice suggested mobile courts could compensate for the hundreds of court buildings closed by the UK government.

A law firm is to become the first to offer paid leave to staff who have been affected by the loss of a pregnancy. Kingsley Napley employees will be allowed 10 days' paid leave in the event of miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth or neonatal loss.

Divorce lawyers have reported a sharp fall in inquiries mentioning adultery during the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside a sharp rise in inquiries mentioning "bad behaviour". London firm Vardags said inquiries mentioning adultery declined by 63 per cent during England's latest lockdown, but those citing

A judge has blasted the last two Star Wars films as "mediocre and schlocky" in an otherwise dry judgment on the labelling of cooking oil. Judge Kenneth K. Lee, sitting in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, summed up the case as "How to Lose a Class Action Settlement in 10 Ways".

A young child has been returned to his parents in England despite the objections of his aunt and uncle. The child had previously been transferred to their care in Ireland for a temporary period to allow his mother to overcome alcohol addiction. However, the aunt and uncle decided that it was in the

Emergency legislation allowing for Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) hearings to continue to take place in light of the Zalewski judgment will come forward "in the next couple of weeks", Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said. The landmark Supreme Court judgment in Zalewski, handed down in April,

A private member's bill providing for a referendum on enshrining the right to housing in the Constitution cleared second stage in the Dáil last night. The Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Housing) Bill 2020, sponsored by socialist TDs Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Mic

Chief Justice Frank Clarke will deliver the first in a series of online lectures in honour of the late Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman beginning next Tuesday. The first of the Hardiman Lecture Series, to be delivered by the outgoing Chief Justice, will be titled "The United States and the European Union

The new Commission on Taxation and Welfare, chaired by Professor Niamh Moloney, head of the law department at LSE, will hold its first meeting today. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe yesterday announced the appointment of 13 tax and welfare experts joining Professor Moloney on the commission.

The looming by-election in Dublin Bay South, widely seen as the first major electoral test for the new coalition government, is shaping up to be a battle of barristers – with as many as four of the top contenders drawn from the profession. Fine Gael candidate James Geoghegan has perhaps the mo

Supermarkets in the UK have suffered another blow in the battle for equal pay after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled employees working in stores can compare their roles to colleagues working in distribution centres for the purpose of equal pay. Before the UK left the EU, the C

A move by the UK Home Office to house asylum seekers in a "squalid" military barracks in Folkstone was flawed and unlawful, the English High Court has found. The claim was brought by six asylum seekers who were accommodated in Napier Barracks between September 2020 and February 2021. All o

Danish MPs have defied international condemnation to approve legislation providing for asylum seekers to be transferred to detention centres outside of Europe for processing. The bill, approved in a 70-24 vote yesterday, will amend the Aliens Act to allow Denmark to move refugees to asylum centres i

Police have paid tribute to their "bovine unit" after wandering cows brought a car chase to a safe end. The 13-mile pursuit ended when the fleeing suspect drove onto a farm and had to brake when faced with a wall of cows.