News

Gardaí will now issue cautions to adults caught with small amounts of cannabis and cannabis resin in a significant expansion of the adult cautioning scheme introduced nearly 15 years ago. The scheme provides "an alternative to the prosecution of certain persons against whom there is evidence

MI6 may have unilaterally assumed the power to authorise agents to commit crimes in the UK, a court has heard. Reprieve, the Pat Finucane Centre, Privacy International, and the Committee on the Administration of Justice have been challenging a secret policy under which MI5 authorises covert agents,

Air pollution contributed to the death of a nine-year-old girl with asthma, a coroner has ruled in a first for an inquest anywhere in the UK. South London coroner Philip Barlow said the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah in February 2013 was caused by acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air polluti

The Attorney General for England and Wales has been left embarrassed by a submission in a case in which she appealed against the sentences of three offenders found guilty of the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper. PC Harper was dragged for more than a mile behind a car driven by Henry Long. He was jai

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating whether airlines have breached consumers’ legal rights by failing to offer cash refunds for flights they could not lawfully take. The move comes as part of ongoing work by the CMA in relation to holiday refunds during the corona

A mayor has mocked a fine imposed on authorities for appointing too many women. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo was told she had broken the law by naming too many women to various posts.

The High Court had ruled that a German man suffering from schizophrenia who is detained in Ireland is entitled to be considered for transfer to a secure hospital in Germany. Background

Mason Hayes & Curran LLP has announced the appointment of Sara O’Reilly as a partner in the firm's financial services team, specialising in investment funds and asset management. Ms O'Reilly has over 16 years' experience practising as an investment funds lawyer, both in-house and in privat

Former director of public prosecutions Barra McGrory QC has been appointed to the board of Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU), the body promoting all aspects of uilleann piping. His appointment follows a change in the NPU's constitution to provide for membership at board level of "persons who

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.