News

Rape complainants questioned about their sexual history will have legal representation at trial, under new reforms announced by Justice Minister Helen McEntee. The measure is among changes meant to improve complainants' experience of the justice system detailed in the strategy Supporting A Victim&rs

A review of Ireland's defamation laws and options for reform are to be laid before Justice Minister Helen McEntee. The Department of Justice aims for fresh legislation to be ready for governmental approval before the end of the year.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of prisoners spending more than 15 days in units by themselves, the Belfast Telegraph reports. In the past decade, more than 1,000 prisoners have been put in care and supervision units (CSUS) in jails for that period of time.

The actions of the UK government during the coronavirus emergency this year bear the hallmarks of authoritarianism, Lord Sumption has warned. The former Supreme Court justice noted that authoritarian government promotes "loyalty at the expense of wisdom and flattery at the expense of objective advic

On 25 September 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in two separate judgments that where a public body decides not to disclose certain records (on the basis of an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (the “Act”)). The reasons for the decision must be fully explained, and the pub

The TV and radio adverts for the ‘Still Here’ domestic abuse campaign will recommence today. The Still Here TV and radio adverts, developed by the Department of Justice in collaboration with a number of frontline services, shows that, for many people, their home is not a safe place durin

A new report from Airwars raises the question of whether the Trump administration has been using the CIA for strikes in Yemen in order to shroud US operations there in greater secrecy. Airwars is a not-for-profit transparency organisation aimed at tracking, assessing and archiving military actions a

In the thirtieth article in our jurisprudential primer series, Benjamin Bestgen takes a look at fictional legal systems. See his last entry here. Early readers of this series may recall my article about depictions of law in utopian fiction. What stood out was that utopian writers had little use

Thieves have stolen half a tonne of grapes from a vineyard, the equivalent of 350 bottles of white wine, or £3,300. When workers arrived at the Coteau Rougemont vineyard in a wooded area in Quebec, Canada, there was nothing left to pick.

The Supreme Court has held that a man is entitled to costs against a judge of the District Court. The appeal flowed from judicial review proceedings taken by Brendan Kilty against Judge Cormac Dunne. District Court

The UK government has been called on to “act without delay” and order a public inquiry into the killing of Pat Finucane. Mr Finucane, a Belfast solicitor, was shot and killed by loyalist paramilitaries in collusion with the UK security forces in 1989.

There has been an increase in the number of people breaching the legislation used to monitor sex offenders following their release from prison, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has confirmed. There have been 53 breaches of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 since the beginning of the year, compared to 48 in a

A new legally binding instrument to protect lawyers should be drafted as soon as possible, the Council of Europe (CoE) has said in a new report. The principles and guarantees of advocates, published by the CoE's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, reiterates the need for a 'European convent

President Michael D. Higgins has signed the Mother and Baby Homes Bill into law while highlighting that the concerns raised over it "are serious and must be addressed". A statement issued on Sunday night states that the President "has followed the passage of this Bill through both Houses of the Oire

Arthur Cox has appointed four new trainee solicitors to its Belfast office. The latest cohort to join the firm’s industry-leading programme comprises recent graduates, Alannah McKeaveney, David Greatorex, Hannah Foulsham and Patrick Loughridge.