News

Our regular round-up of deals involving Irish law firms. Submit your deals to newsdesk@irishlegal.com. Fieldfisher Ireland has advised Simply Blue Energy, a Cork-headquartered early-stage developer of transformative and sustainable marine projects, on a milestone agreement with Shell New Energies, t

Benjamin Bestgen examines the impact of "respectability" in criminal trials. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. Tropes like the “Gentleman Thief” pick up on the allure of the white-collar criminal: a person who appears respectable, educated, even charming. A worldly, cleve

Lawyers for a man alleging he was waterboarded by the British Army in 1972 have identified a second plaintiff who has now issued another civil action in the High Court. Belfast firm Harte Coyle Collins is now representing both men, whose claims both involve the army base at Blackmountain Barracks in

Juries should be cut from 12 members to seven in order to clear the Covid-19 backlog of criminal cases in England and Wales, Labour has said. The call follows a joint report from the police, prosecutors, prisons and probation inspectorates, which said the "unprecedented and very serious" backlog in

Facial recognition technology amplifies racist policing and threatens the right to protest, campaigners have warned as they launch a global campaign against its use. The new Ban the Scan campaign, launched by Amnesty International, will begin in New York City before expanding to focus on the use of

Rape victims from an ethnic minority background are significantly less likely to see their case lead to prosecutions or convictions, according to a new research paper. In a newly-published report, psychologists at Middlesex University call on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to improve its guidan

Pet owners are being asked to register their dog's unique "noseprint" with city authorities in a pilot aimed at reducing pet insurance fraud. The initiative in Hangzhou, in eastern China, requires pet owners to use an app to upload a picture of their dog's nose in exchange for a digital ID card.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a hospital may withhold life-sustaining treatment for a catastrophically injured child against the wishes of his parents. In an important judgment regarding health decisions and family authority, the court considered that the best interests of the child did not requi

Ronan Daly Jermyn has announced the appointment of Brian Quinn as a partner in its banking and finance department. Mr Quinn has almost a decade of experience advising Irish and international financial institutions and borrowers in relation to a large range of domestic and cross-border corporate fina

A new free legal advice clinic for children and young people in the care system has been launched by EPIC and Community Law & Mediation. The collaborative initiative seeks to empower children and young people in care, or leaving care, to vindicate their legal rights in relation to their health,

The positive changes rapidly made in Ireland's prison service during the Covid-19 pandemic are at risk of being reversed, the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) has warned. The penal reform body today published its fourth annual review of standards in Irish prisons, which welcomes the reduction of pris

A man who held up a judge, a barrister and his estranged wife with a fake pistol and a hoax pipe bomb in a Dublin court siege has been jailed for six years. Sentencing Edmund Dunican this morning, Judge Patricia Ryan said this was a planned and premeditated offence which has ongoing adverse effects

Seán O'Donnell, partner at ByrneWallace, examines the 14 principles underpinning Ireland's regulator's approach to data processing. On 18 December 2020 the Data Protection Commission published its draft Fundamentals for a Child-Oriented Approach to Data Processing. Building on existing guidan

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) has settled a case against the Northern Ireland Office over the requirement for local election candidates to disclose their home address. The human rights watchdog launched proceedings in February 2020 on behalf of Máiría Cahill, who

Magistrates will be allowed to work until they are 75 under new UK government plans. The mandatory retirement age for magistrates will be increased from 70 to 75 out of fears that a large number of retirements will compound the problems created by Covid-19 backlogs in the magistrates' courts, The Te