News

Belfast solicitor Trevor Ringland MBE has been appointed by the UK government as the first special envoy to the United States on Northern Ireland. Mr Ringland, a partner at Macaulay & Ritchie Solicitors, will be responsible for promoting Northern Ireland interests across the US, including in the

Professor Grainne McKeever, professor of law and social justice at the University of Ulster, has been appointed to chair an independent review of the discretionary support scheme. Professor McKeever will be joined on the panel by Dr Ciara Fitzpatrick, also of University of Ulster; Gerry McConville o

Arthur Cox has been named Ireland's top law firm at the Benchmark Litigation Europe Awards 2021. The firm claimed the Ireland Firm of the Year award, while Eve Mulconry, partner and head of the litigation, dispute resolution and investigations group, was named Ireland Litigator of the Year.

Statutory gender quotas on corporate boards are effective and should be introduced in Ireland, the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) has said. The national women's membership organisation will launch a report later this month titled Increasing Gender Balance on Boards: The case for legislat

Over 600 people will receive damages from South Yorkshire Police and West Midlands Police as part of a settlement over the cover-up following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 football fans were unlawfully killed. The settlement, bringing to a close large-scale group litigation which began

Slovenia has become the 13th country in Europe to pass legislation defining rape as sex without consent. The new amendment to the Slovenian criminal code, debated for nearly three years, removes the requirement for evidence of use of force or the threat of use of force and violence to classify an ac

Lady Hale has advocated the use of caravan courts to restore local justice and spare participants long journeys. The former Supreme Court justice suggested mobile courts could compensate for the hundreds of court buildings closed by the UK government.

A law firm is to become the first to offer paid leave to staff who have been affected by the loss of a pregnancy. Kingsley Napley employees will be allowed 10 days' paid leave in the event of miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth or neonatal loss.

Divorce lawyers have reported a sharp fall in inquiries mentioning adultery during the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside a sharp rise in inquiries mentioning "bad behaviour". London firm Vardags said inquiries mentioning adultery declined by 63 per cent during England's latest lockdown, but those citing

A judge has blasted the last two Star Wars films as "mediocre and schlocky" in an otherwise dry judgment on the labelling of cooking oil. Judge Kenneth K. Lee, sitting in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, summed up the case as "How to Lose a Class Action Settlement in 10 Ways".

A young child has been returned to his parents in England despite the objections of his aunt and uncle. The child had previously been transferred to their care in Ireland for a temporary period to allow his mother to overcome alcohol addiction. However, the aunt and uncle decided that it was in the

Emergency legislation allowing for Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) hearings to continue to take place in light of the Zalewski judgment will come forward "in the next couple of weeks", Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said. The landmark Supreme Court judgment in Zalewski, handed down in April,

A private member's bill providing for a referendum on enshrining the right to housing in the Constitution cleared second stage in the Dáil last night. The Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (Right to Housing) Bill 2020, sponsored by socialist TDs Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Mic

Chief Justice Frank Clarke will deliver the first in a series of online lectures in honour of the late Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman beginning next Tuesday. The first of the Hardiman Lecture Series, to be delivered by the outgoing Chief Justice, will be titled "The United States and the European Union

The new Commission on Taxation and Welfare, chaired by Professor Niamh Moloney, head of the law department at LSE, will hold its first meeting today. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe yesterday announced the appointment of 13 tax and welfare experts joining Professor Moloney on the commission.