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The Supreme Court ought to be abolished and have its functions transferred to an appeal court comprising judges drawn from the UK's three legal jurisdictions, a senior barrister and academic has suggested. In a paper for the cente-right Policy Exchange think tank, Derrick Wyatt QC, emeritus professo

The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit by Google under the EU Merger Regulation. The Commission is concerned that the proposed transaction would further entrench Google's market position in the online advertising markets

A mother who allegedly dug a ten-metre-long, three-metre-tall tunnel in a bid to break her son out of prison has been arrested. Police believe that the 51-year-old woman had been working on the tunnel in southern Ukraine for at least three weeks before being caught.

Ms Justice Teresa Pilkington has been nominated for appointment as an ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal. She has served as a High Court judge since 2018, having previously practised as a barrister in civil law cases.

The Supreme Court has quashed the Government’s National Mitigation Plan to meet the National Transition Objective (NTO) in combating climate change on the grounds that it is “excessively vague and aspirational”. The Chief Justice Mr Justice Frank Clarke, giving the judgment of the

Ms Justice Ann Power, a serving judge of the Court of Appeal, has been appointed as chairperson of the CervicalCheck Tribunal. She succeeds Ms Justice Mary Irvine, the former Court of Appeal judge who was appointed to chair the tribunal in 2018 but gave up the role on her appointment as president of

Belfast firm Edwards & Co Solicitors has announced the promotion of corporate and charity law specialist Sarah Burrows to partner. Ms Burrows joined the firm as a solicitor last April, having previously served as the head of the charity law team in a large corporate practice.

US lawyer Sarah Ledgerwood has been appointed as manager of data management and forensic technologies at BSI Consulting Services in Dublin. Ms Ledgerwood joins the Sandyford-based company from Lighthouse eDiscovery, where she held the position of eDiscovery evangelist and legal marketing content spe

A former Conservative minister is to lead an investigation into the scope of judicial review. Lord Faulks has been appointed to head the panel, which also includes Dundee University's Professor Alan Page, Vikram Sachdeva QC, Professor Carol Harlow, an honorary QC, of the LSE, and Celina Colquho

Dr Sarah Fulham-McQuillan, assistant professor at UCD Sutherland School of Law, considers the legal basis for mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. Promising results from COVID-19 vaccine trials emerged last month, while concern grows about the non-attendance by close contacts of coronavirus patients for

Commercial law firm Tughans remains the top M&A firm in Northern Ireland by deal count, according to the latest report from Experian Market IQ. There were just 58 transactions in Northern Ireland in the first half of 2020, a 65 per cent decline on the 65 during the same period last year, and Tug

The International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) has announced that it will re-commence hearing appeals at its Dublin premises from Thursday. The tribunal has published an updated administrative practice note which sets out its plans for hearings at its Hanover Street premises. Some hearings wil

A criminal defence solicitor accused of theft and perverting the course of justice wants to meet the case head on and “reclaim his reputation”, a court has heard. Cahir O'Higgins, 45, appeared briefly before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Friday in order to set a trial date.

Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve QC has warned that judges suspect ministers are increasingly misleading the courts. Mr Grieve, who served as the UK government's senior law officer for four years under David Cameron, said a "serious problem" was emerging between the government and the judiciar

More than 5,000 local law firms and up to half of law centres in England and Wales could go bust as a result of the COVID-19 crisis if the UK government does not step in, MPs have warned. In a new report, Westminster's justice select committee has urged the Ministry of Justice to consider further gr