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Organisations dedicated to the advancement of human rights will be eligible to become charities under reforms proposed by the government. The Charities (Amendment) Bill 2023, to be introduced to the Dáil today, includes a series of revisions and updates to the Charities Act 2009, including pr

Irish lawyer Michael O'Flaherty has been elected as the Council of Europe's next commissioner for human rights, becoming the first Irish person to hold the post. Dr O'Flaherty won 104 votes in the second day of voting by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), beating Bulgarian n

A man has been arrested on suspicion of robbing a bank just three days after being acquitted of robbing a different bank. Chicago man Mohamed Worku, 31, was acquitted of bank robbery on Friday after a jury found that his alleged actions were not intimidating enough to meet the definition of robbery.

A constitutional amendment allowing Ireland to participate in the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will take place in June. The government yesterday confirmed plans to hold the referendum alongside the European and local elections, with a bill to be brought to the Oireachtas as a matter of priority.

New legislation will be introduced to guarantee "reasonable access to cash" in the State. The general scheme of the Access to Cash Bill, which stems from a recommendation made by the Retail Banking Review in 2022, was published yesterday following approval by government ministers.

Queen's University Belfast law graduate Aine Doyle has been awarded the Lord Kerr Bar Scholarship for 2023/24. The award will cover the fees of the one-year bar trainee course at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies (IPLS), amounting to £10,400.

The Irish Red Cross has invited law students to enter this year's Corn Adomnáin, its annual international humanitarian law (IHL) competition. Teams of three have until the end of January to sign up for the competition, which will take place at Dublin City University on Saturday 23 March 2024.

Matheson has promoted Susan Carroll Chrysostomou, Connor Cassidy, Raphael Clancy, John Coary and Ruadhán Kenny to partner. The new partners span three practice areas — corporate M&A, litigation and tax — and two offices, with four partners appointed in Dublin and one in London

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland has supported a 60-year-old sales manager in settling an age discrimination case against his former employer for £75,000 with no admission of liability. Seamus Gillespie, from Co Fermanagh, began working for well-known bakery WD Irwin and Sons Ltd i

Majority verdicts were introduced in part to dilute the influence of ethnic minority and working class jurors, according to new research. Undertaken by miscarriage of justice charity Appeal, the study found that the rationale for the introduction of majority verdicts in 1967, as opposed to unanimous

A pastor who admitted pocketing more than $1 million from his followers says the Lord told him to. Colorado pastor Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn are facing civil fraud charges in connection with a cryptocurrency fraud scheme which raised nearly $3.2 million (€2.9m or £2.5m) from 300 p

Irish candidate Dr Michael O'Flaherty is leading the vote for the Council of Europe's next human rights commissioner and could be elected to the post today. A first round of voting at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), with representatives from all 46 nations, saw him receiv

Peter Mullan has been appointed as chairperson of An Bord Pleanála. Mr Mullan has served as interim chairperson of the planning body since September 2023, having first been appointed as a temporary board member in January 2023, and will now take up the position on a permanent basis.

An extremely advanced draft of the EU's landmark AI Act has been leaked online ahead of a key vote. Euractiv tech editor Luca Bertuzzi yesterday published an 892-page document which was shared with EU countries on Sunday, which compares the consolidated draft with three earlier proposals.

UK judges have ruled that Walkers must pay VAT on its mini poppadoms because they are really just crisps. The snack giant had argued that that its Sensations Poppadoms were not crisps and should not attract sales tax.