News

A long-awaited white paper setting out the government's plans to replace the widely-criticised direct provision system for asylum seekers will be published next week. Integration Minister Roderic O'Gorman originally promised to publish the white paper by the end of 2020, but told a conference on Tue

Children's Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon has been reappointed for a further six-year term. The statutory ombudsman promotes the rights and welfare of children; examines and investigates complaints about services provided to children and young people; and provides advice regarding children's rights and

Australians can no longer access or share news on Facebook after the social media giant responded to proposed new legislation with sweeping restrictions on news content. Legislation which would establish a "mandatory code of conduct" for news media businesses and digital platforms was approved at th

Search giant Google has been fined €1.1 million by French authorities for displaying "misleading" star ratings for hotels and other tourist accommodations. The French competition watchdog, the DGCCRF, launched an investigation in 2019 following complaints from hoteliers who said star ratin

The imprisonment of Catalan rapper Pablo Hasél for tweets and song lyrics which prosecutors said glorified terrorism and insulted the Spanish monarchy has been met with international outrage. Amnesty International said Mr Hasél's imprisonment was "excessive and disproportionate", while

A railroad engineer who deliberately defecated on company property and said it was a "present" for his boss has kept his job. Matthew Lebsack was fired by US rail giant Union Pacific after the incident in November 2016, but a federal appeals court has reluctantly reinstated him.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the validity of a homemade will despite the fact that several parts had not been properly executed by the testatrix. The deceased, Ms Mary McEnroe, had made her own will and had altered it before she died by scribbling out certain words so that they became illegible. T

LK Shields LLP has announced the promotion of Cathal Hester to partner in the firm's commercial property team in Galway. Mr Hester plays a central role in advising some of the firm's largest domestic and international clients on all aspects of Irish commercial property law, with particular expertise

Mr Justice Michael Peart has been appointed to chair a six-person group reviewing the legislation underpinning the prosecution of terrorism and organised crime offences in the non-jury Special Criminal Court. The former judge, who served on the Court of Appeal from 2014 to 2019 and the High Court fr

A number of senior judges have circulated memos critical of draft personal injury guidelines currently being considered by the Judicial Council, according to reports. The memos have been seen by The Irish Times, which reports that they come from High Court judges and one Court of Appeal judge. One i

The period of "extreme uncertainty" in the Irish M&A market is drawing to a close, William Fry has said following a report showing the total value of Irish deals increased by 14 per cent to €9.1 billion last year in spite of the Covid-19 pandemic. The law firm today published its M&A Re

A victims' rights campaigner is taking the European Commission to court over its short-lived threat to invoke Article 16 during the EU vaccine crisis. Solicitor Ciaran O'Hare of Belfast firm McIvor Farrell Solicitors has been instructed to bring a judicial review to the General Court of the European

William Fry partner Alicia Compton and associate Karen Hennessy look into the new travel restrictions and what employers need to consider if their employees are travelling for work. In recent weeks the government has ramped up its efforts to restrict travel to and from Ireland to curb the spread of

The European Commission is expected to decide this week that data protection standards are high enough in the UK to allow personal data transfers between the UK and the EU to continue. The adequacy assessment has huge significance for businesses operating across the UK and the EU. It has attracted e

This week Benjamin Bestgen considers swearing, without which many of us would struggle to get through the day. See his last jurisprudential primer here. Unrelated to jurisprudential questions, a colleague recently mentioned the Jersey employment tribunal case of Wilkinson v Fairway Trust Limited [20