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The special rapporteur on child protection has highlighted aspects of the Child Care Act 1991 which merit "substantial reform" in his annual report for 2019. The report, published today, is the first report submitted by child law expert Professor Conor O'Mahony since his appointment to the role last

Ireland is set to ratify the Lanzarote Convention on protecting children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, Justice Minister Helen McEntee has announced. Earlier this year, Ireland became the only Council of Europe member state that had not ratified the Lanzarote Convention, which Ireland si

The Northern Ireland Executive is "failing children and young people", the Children's Law Centre has told the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). In a report submitted to the committee, the law centre said there has been a "systemic failure" to incorporate the principles of the UN Conve

Family lawyer Claire Edgar, partner at Francis Hanna & Co Solicitors, examines the issue of equality in divorce settlements. It is 20 years since the House of Lords handed down the seminal judgement of White v White, which decided that, when determining each spouse’s contribution to the ma

"If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out" and if he breaks another's bone, his shall be broken. So states Hammurabi's Code, an ancient exemplar of the precept of lex talionis. Why is revenge so compelling? Benjamin Bestgen explains all. See his last jurisprudential primer h

A police drugs-squad raided a house in Peru dressed as Santa and an elf.

The Court of Appeal has rejected a man’s argument that he was imprisoned for 24 hours longer than permitted. Upholding Mr Justice Seamus Noonan’s decision in the High Court, Ms Justice Máire Whelan said that the calculation of the term of his imprisonment was correct.

The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland is investigating claims that the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) broke the law by failing to publish an equality assessment of its legacy proposals. The watchdog is investigating after a complaint was filed by the Committee on the Administration of Justice

Ireland's data protection watchdog has imposed a €450,000 fine on Twitter following a landmark inquiry regarding a data breach. The Data Protection Commission found that the social media giant infringed Article 33(1) and 33(5) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in terms of a fa

Belfast and Newry firm JMK Solicitors has committed to paying all of its full-time members of staff a minimum annual salary of £20,000. The move, effective from the start of November, will see the firm effectively pay a minimum wage of £12.80 per hour rather than the statutory £8.7

Social media companies will face fines of billions of pounds for failing to tackle harmful content under new UK government plans, but criminal offences targeting executives will not immediately be introduced.

Ownership of Bangor's historic courthouse has been transferred to a community group as part of a project to regenerate the Co Down town's seafront. Built in 1866, the courthouse was originally a branch of the Belfast Banking Company and contained a private residence for the bank manager and his fami

The independent inquiry into the recall of around 3,000 neurology patients in Belfast has been converted to a statutory public inquiry. Health Minister Robin Swann told MLAs that the inquiry was converted to a statutory public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 from 11 December 2020.

Two Newry solicitors are set to undertake a gruelling half-marathon on Christmas morning in support of Women's Aid NI. Ryan Elliott and John Murphy, both from The Elliott-Trainor Partnership Solicitors, will run 13.1 miles on Christmas Day to raise funds for the charity in Armagh and Down.

A new social media trend which encourages young people to lie in front of oncoming traffic has been condemned by gardaí. The "ghosting" trend sees people challenged to lie on roads with a sheet over them in an attempt to stop oncoming traffic.