News

A ban on children's outdoor sport in Northern Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic is a "clear violation" of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a Magherafelt lawyer has said. Stephen Atherton, director at John J McNally & Co Solicitors, has announced his intention to bring a judicial

The PSNI has made "considerable progress" in improving how business crime is dealt with in Northern Ireland, the criminal justice watchdog has found. Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJINI) has published a follow-up review which found that fix of six recommendations made in 2017 had bee

In the case of Bin Ali Jaber v Germany, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, Germany, has ruled that the diplomatic efforts of the German government with regard to US drone missions in accordance with international law are sufficient. In March 2019, the Higher Administrative Court of Mü

A hair salon that invoked the authority of Magna Carta faces a fine of £27,000 for repeatedly breaching the lockdown rules. Sinead Quinn, owner of Quinn Blakey Hairdressers in Oakenshaw, Bradford, was working when Kirklees Council issued a fine for £4,000 and thereafter two more for &pou

A major academic project exploring how any potential future referendum or referendums on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland would best be designed and conducted will discuss its interim findings at a webinar next week. The working group on unification referendums, chaired by Dr Alan Renwi

The Court of Appeal has allowed the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) appeal of the order of Mr Justice Michael White qua the Central Criminal Court placing a prohibition on naming a person who has been convicted and sentenced following a trial for a number of offences of rape and sexual

Ministers have approved plans to criminalise the sharing of intimate images without consent, regardless of the motivation for doing so. The government will bring amendments to the Harassment, Harmful Communication and Related Offences Bill following reports that intimate images of thousands of Irish

Solicitors have welcomed the announcement of an inquiry into the historical licensing and use of the anti-epileptic drug sodium valproate (Epilim) in Ireland. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly announced the inquiry yesterday following a meeting with representatives from Epilepsy Ireland and the Organ

Pressure is mounting on the UK government to order a public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Belfast solicitor Pat Finucane. The UK Supreme Court ruled in February 2019 that the state has failed to deliver an Article 2 compliant investigation into the death of Mr Finucane, who was shot and killed by

The UK government has launched a public consultation on the continued use of non-jury trials in Northern Ireland until 2023. Under the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007, the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland can decide when a trial should take place without a jury.

The suspension of laws allowing employees to demand redundancy after a certain length of temporary lay-off has been extended until the end of March 2021. The move is intended to help avoid further permanent job losses at a time when some 350,000 people are in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Pay

"Usura rusteth the chisel/It rusteth the craft and the craftsman", wrote Ezra Pound. Benjamin Bestgen explains the practice of usury. See last week's primer here. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice we encounter two people lending money: the Christian merchant Antonio and the Jewish moneyl

The Home Office's widely-condemned "hostile environment" measures breached equality law with particular impact on black members of the Windrush generation, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said. The equality watchdog's new assessment highlights that that the negative consequences

The government has come under renewed pressure to ratify a UN treaty on torture following a critical report on conditions in Irish prisons, psychiatric facilities and social care homes. The Council of Europe's committee on the prevention of torture (CPT) yesterday published a report based on its vis

Judicial reviews sought by the Good Law Project have proceeded to the next stage. The High Court allowed two separate claims to proceed. One concerns the UK government's transparency obligations and the other a challenge, made with EveryDoctor, against the government's decision to award contracts to