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A criminal defence lawyer has sharply criticised safety measures at a specialist COVID-19 custody suite established by the PSNI in Belfast. The new "interview room with a perspex screen" at the Musgrave police station "is inadequate at best, and downright dangerous at worst", solicitor Joe Rice

Plans to launch an auto-enrolment pension scheme in Ireland by 2022 "may not survive the ongoing economic fall-out from the COVID-19 crisis", Mason Hayes & Curran (MHC) has said. The business law firm today published the results of a survey carried out in partnership with the Irish Institute of

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has apologised to locals for the way in which the Direct Provision centre at the Skellig Star hotel in Cahersiveen was opened. Nearly 70 people seeking international protection were moved to the centre on 18 and 19 March from a hotel in Dublin where another guest su

Senator Michael McDowell gives his view on the developing row between the German federal courts and the European Union. Over the last few weeks, a furore has been whipped up about the decision of the German federal constitutional court at Karlsruhe, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BVerfG for short), i

Complaints to the Ombudsman rose by nine per cent to reach a nine-year high last year, according to new figures. Ombudsman Peter Tyndall, who considers complaints from people who use public services, received 3,664 complaints in 2019.

Benjamin Bestgen considers judges and politics (click here to view his last jurisprudential primer). See also our review of Lord Sumption's book dealing with the same theme. In April 2020, Polish Supreme Court President Malgorzata Gersdorf retired. She noted that she had been unable to stop conteste

PhD student Jane Mulcahy has defended her thesis on post-release supervision of long-sentence male prisoners in UCC School of Law's first-ever "virtual viva". Ms Mulcahy had to defend her thesis, Connected Corrections and Corrected Connections: post-release supervision of long sentence male prisoner

People suspected of terrorism offences would face minimum jail terms of 14 years under proposed legislation. Under the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill, introduced to Parliament today, the standard of proof for terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpims) imposed on individuals who a

A drug trafficker has been sentenced to death in Singapore in a remote court hearing held using Zoom. Malaysian national Punithan Genasan, 37, was convicted on Friday of complicity in heroin trafficking in 2011.

A group of young men who gave cider to cows have been fined for flouting lockdown restrictions. A video posted on social media showed a group of men feeding a can of Strongbow cider to a cow in Essex, weeks before England's lockdown measures were relaxed.

Physical court sittings have been limited to a maximum of two hours per day while the Courts Service seeks clarification on health advice given to the Oireachtas. The special committee on the COVID-19 response yesterday heard that spending two hours in an enclosed setting with someone who later deve

The High Court has held that Solicitors Mutual Defence Fund Limited is entitled to re-enter proceedings for judgment of €4.9 million it alleges are outstanding pursuant to a 2011 settlement with Bloxham Stockbrokers. Background

At least one Dublin law firm has reopened its city centre office as Irish law firms prepare to return to their physical workplaces under the five-phase government roadmap. M.P. Moloney Solicitors reopened its office at 1 Wellington Quay, Dublin 2 for client and notary public services yesterday,

Suggestions that ordinary criminal trials should take place without juries or with a smaller number of jurors during the COVID-19 emergency have been rejected by The Bar of Ireland. In a submission to the Courts Service, the barristers' body said the "draconian measure" of reducing the number of jur

The non-jury Special Criminal Court may have to stop hearing cases by July if a new government is not formed in time, experts have said. Under section 18 of the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act 1998, the Oireachtas is required to pass resolutions resolving that the provisions relating to n