News

Police have been left stumped following the theft of hundreds of trees from the French countryside. Around 400 fine 100-year-old oaks and 50-year-old spruces were cut down in a couple of nights and removed from an area around a village in the Pyrenees.

The Supreme Court has confirmed the proper legal test when an appellate court is considering admitting new evidence or argument on appeal. Delivering the judgment in the case, Mr Justice John MacMenamin held that a more flexible approach needs to be taken by an appellate court when considering new i

In its judgment in the case of Gilligan v Ireland, the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously held that there had been no violation of Article 6 (right to a fair trial within a reasonable time) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned the length of several sets of

Deirdre Malone details a very interesting discrimination case. Suchavadee Foley ordered a tea from Starbucks last January. Not a tricky transaction, however, the interaction resulted in a €12,000 award to Ms Foley. When placing her order, Ms Foley started to spell an abbreviated version of her

The family law courts continue to operate during Level 5 restrictions. However, to protect staff and the wider public, the courts are of coruse trying to reduce numbers of people attending the courts, writes Mary McMorland. The courts’ staff and practitioners have done what they can to try and

The Times has profiled outgoing Law Society director general Ken Murphy, who retires after 26 years in the role. "Sitting in the spring sunshine in the rose garden behind the Law Society’s Blackhall Place HQ in central Dublin, Ken Murphy, the society’s director-general for the past 26 ye

A £15 million plan to develop part of Belfast’s Crumlin Road Gaol into a whisky distillery has been given the go-ahead by Belfast City Council. Its planning committee approved the application, which will also see part of the old prison's 'A' wing transformed into a tourist centre, the Be

A renewed attack on trial by jury in Scotland has been met with scorn from lawyers. A "cross-justice" group led by Scotland's second most senior judge – the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian – has proposed a pilot of juryless rape trials in what represents the latest attemp

There is one week left to submit case notes to the Hibernian Law Journal for its Case Note Competition 2021.

A non-binary barrister is thought to be the first whose name appears on a chambers' board with the title 'Mx', The Times reports. Oscar Davies, 26, who is biologically male, identifies as non-binary and prefers to be referred to with pronouns whose lexeme is 'they', but is also content with 'he'.

Benjamin Bestgen turns his eye to the legalities of torture this week. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. Torture is a disturbingly common feature in our entertainment. In medieval or horror stories but also war and crime movies, books or TV series, the bad guys routinely torture innocents

Taiwanese officials are calling on people to stop changing their name to Salmon. The situation, dubbed "salmon chaos" by local media came about after Japanese chain Sushiro ran a promotion which ended on Thursday offering free food to any customer and five of their friends – if they changed th

The Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence for a man found guilty of robbery and vehicle theft after the sentencing judge gave a “clear indication” that he would issue a lenient sentence if the man continued his rehabilitation. Giving judgment in the case, Mr Justice Seamus Woulfe redu

The Court of Justice of the European Court has found in favour of a native Irish speaker who argued that information accompanying veterinary medicinal products failed to comply with a directive that it be in both Irish and English. The court ruled that a Member State court is required to exercise th

A Crown appeal against the Sheriff Appeal Court’s decision to quash the convictions of three men who wore allegedly offensive T-shirts to a football match between Celtic FC and Linfield FC has succeeded in the High Court of Justiciary – Scotland's highest criminal court and fro