Opinion

In February, Irish Legal News shared the story of Irish law graduate Aoife Moore Kavanagh, who had become one of the youngest-ever people to pass the New York bar exam. Today, she shares an update on her American adventure. Following on from the brilliant news that I had passed the New York Bar exam

Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan of Richard Grogan & Associates writes on recent cases clarifying the law on fixed-term contracts. In a case of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and Anna Concarr FTD184, an issue arose where the employee contended that, having comp

Margaret Cordial, solicitor at AMOSS Solicitors in Dublin, writes on a series of recent court judgments affecting owners and occupiers. The Courts have held in a number of recent decisions that occupiers are entitled to presume that visitors to their property will take reasonable care for their own

Gerard Ward, senior associate at DWF in Belfast, writes on the key differences between employment law in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. As the Employment law division of DWF, we regularly advise NI and GB based employers on their operations in the Republic of Ireland. As the UK approa

Michael Duffy, solicitor at Worthingtons Solicitors in Belfast, writes on recourse in the case of negligent property surveys. Picture the scenario: a prospective purchaser has instructed a surveyor to prepare a report. The report shows that the property is structurally sound and the purchaser purcha

Ciara Lagan, corporate partner at Belfast firm Tughans, writes on Brexit and diversity. Does Brexit mean a hard border, a watered-down Chequers’ plan, leaving the Customs Union, no deal? After more than 2 years of negotiations, plans and posturing we are still no clearer on what impact Brexit

Darryl Broderick, partner and head of litigation and dispute resolution at Ronan Daly Jermyn, welcomes new rules on media access to court files. New Court Rules relating to the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court were introduced on 1 August 2018 which allow the media access to documents on

Dermot Walsh, professor of law at the University of Kent, writes on the record of the Garda watchdog. For the past 11 years the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) has been entrusted with the primary responsibility of investigating complaints of corruption, abuse and neglect by

Liam Herrick, executive director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), writes following yesterday's settlement between Amnesty and Sipo. For community and voluntary organisations across Ireland, yesterday’s settlement of the court proceedings between Amnesty International Ireland a

Striking the balance between reporting allegations and respecting privacy in cases of alleged sexual misdeeds is a thorny issue, writes Fintan Canavan, partner at BLM. The decision to award Sir Cliff Richard a significant sum for a breach of his right to privacy comes at a time when issues of f

The eagerly awaited judgment in the case of Owens v Owens was handed down by the Supreme Court yesterday and marks the first time the Court had been asked to rule on the issue of divorce itself, as opposed to financial issues that arise because of divorce, writes Julie Tierney. Mrs Owens filed for d

The UK government’s White Paper is an important step towards avoiding a ‘hard’ border in Ireland. However, sustaining the rule of law in the Irish border region will depend on institutional co-operation, writes Jan van Zyl Smit (Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law). By proposin

John Kelly looks at the merits of drawing up a modern slavery statement. Modern slavery significant problem in NI’… ‘PSNI receive 31 trafficking and modern slavery cases’… ‘People being kept as human slaves on a daily basis across Northe

Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan of Richard Grogan & Associates writes on the upcoming gender pay gap disclosure legislation. In June, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan introduced the general scheme for the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill.

Brehon law, which was codified in the 7th and survived until 17th century, has been described in some instances as being moderately progressive in regards to women’s rights and issues like divorce. Given that divorce was prohibited in Ireland from 1937 until the marriage referendum in 1995, th